I now have the first cast out of the new mold, I gave it the tint base used for the Buff Yellow finish, though I also have this as a non official finish, it’s a pleasing warm color that reminds me of South Western adobe for some reason even though adobe clay and bricks are more of a pale red to pinkish color. Given an application of satin clear sealer it would look very nice. Here’s another one with a little aging wash added: It is 22-3/4″ x 19-1/4″ and 5″ deep, weighing about 40#

Here’s a concrete cast fresh out of the mold for a client in Nashville that is going on his building. I need to drill a hole in the bottom for a stainless steel rod, and after it cures a few days wrapped in plastic he will get an acid stain. The cast weighs 150# so this one has to ship by truck! The cast was acid stained and then a high quality oil based concrete sealer applied quite heavily as this will be installed in a very exposed location, so it’s a good idea to start it off with the maximum protection. The sealer does darken the color considerably but…

I decided to order a small amount of Brittania metal from Rotocast metals to do some metal casting, so  here’s five pounds of ingots to stockpile for now:I need to order another 5-10# worth yet. The brittania metal is 98% pure tin, the remaining 2% is comprised of antimony and copper, they were just about $100 for the five ingots, a tad bit less than $20 a pound. So what am I going to make out of this? Way back in the early 1990s I experimented with a few dog models, most were cast by a foundry for me in bronze, but one I had decided to try casting in…

Now I have the Butterfly child panel sealed with lacquer and release brushed on it’s ready for the Rubber. The model is moist clay in the leather hard stage. The first detail coat of rubber has been applied to the model.  

      I took the panel out of the kiln now, still hot enough to need gloves to handle, but it came out very good. I made one small error in the final temperature 2079º I should have set it to 2060º, that 19º difference seems minute in a kiln over 2000º but it makes the difference between the clay turning slightly brown and staying the red color I am aiming for.I had forgotten the higher temperature gave me the browner color a year ago when I fired  another piece to that temperature as a test, and then lowered it to 2060º and the red color remained. The photo…

The panel is still in the kiln since Sunday at noon, it should shut off in about 4 hours. It looks like the panel has survived so far through the critical stages, it could still have a crack or something but we’ll see. Here’s what 1755º looks like through the peephole on the kiln, now imagine 320º hotter still: My Olympic kiln, model 1823HE cone 10 (2350º) is not as large as I wanted, this was $2300 and the next larger size was only a few inches wider and a couple of inches taller inside and it was $3100 which was quite  a jump! For about $3200 they have an…

I just put the first hand-pressed clay pressing of the Art Deco panel D5 into the kiln about 5 minutes ago, here it is before closing the lid: I adjusted the kiln firing schedule  for “User 4” a little from the previous test firing, I kept the same 5 segment program and holding for 9 hours @ 200º F, but since I want to fire these at a higher temperature- 129º F than I did on the tests I needed to adjust the ramps a bit. Here is what I came up with for this firing on this sculpture, we’ll see how it works:   R1: 80º/H to 200º HOLD…

The first cast from the new mold It took 100# of cast stone and almost 5 gallons of water to fill the mold, after the cast was hollowed out and dried he weighs 90#  The first cast is for myself, I also need to cast one solid, and with the “shims” left intact, as a “master” for future mold making since the original clay model has been damaged. I cast a concrete cast today for a client in Nashville for his building restoration/renovation, that one is to sit on top of a now closed off chimney. It took 100# of sand and about 40# of Portland cement to cast that…

I finished the mold for the seated winged dog, it took 3 gallons of Rebound 25 rubber and 125# or so of pottery plaster for the shell. I cast the first plaster cast from it tonight, it took almost two 5 gallon pails to fill, and exactly 100# of the Densite plaster. After hollowing it out as much as I could while it was setting, the wet out of the mold weight is 100# So if I figure 19 quarts of water used is about 40#, less what was in the waste from hollowing him out, I’ve noticed about half the weight of water used in plaster casts evaporates, the…

With the rubber portion completed, now is the time to start on the plaster support shell, herewith is the photo of the first section of the shell hand-formed in place. While this hardens up I need to shovel snow off my driveway unfortunately, but about the time I finish that it will be time to form the next section.   Now with the first 2 sections done it’s time to add the rest needed for what will become a 12 piece shell. All the small pieces are required to deal with the multitude of deep undercuts and opposing surface angles. The smaller pieces also make it easier to dismantle and…