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…