I decided to modify the kiln firing schedule for the two large beaver panels- adding another hour to the first segment, slowing it down between a couple of critical temperature points, and then adding a couple of cool-down segments that will slow that down from 1600 to 950 degrees as it passes thru a critical temperature in the 1100 range. I didn’t add a slow down before now, when the kiln shut off it shut off and cooled, and 2000 degrees cools pretty fast with the power off, so now when it reaches 1600 the heat will turn back on to slow it to 175 degrees drop an hour down…

filled the mold for this with water to see how much it takes, it too just about 2 gallons, so that gives me an idea how much rubber it would take to make a positive cast to turn this design into terra cotta too, it would fit in my kiln easily. Interesting thing about this piece is, way back around 1978 I was looking for work and not having much luck finding anything, somehow or other I got the idea to look in the yellow pages and one thing led to another I called this place uptown called “Gargoyles” and I remember trying to see if they might take some…

Seeing how the first beaver panel fits in the kiln, cutting it close for height with only 5/16″ between it and the lid but it will work. A second one- red- will go in when it’s drier. I had to stack a couple of shelf supports behind this first one so that if it tends to want to lean backwards it will be stopped by them, the second panel will need the same behind it. I think next Friday I’ll turn it on. I modified the firing program just a little by adding another hour of pre-heating @195º making it 9 hours so these are good and dry for sure.…

I decided that since I thought I have JUST enough left over mold rubber, that about the only thing small enough I could use it for is that grotesque keystone, so I got the mold out and filled it with water to see how much it takes to fill it, just about one gallon. It looked like I might have just a hair less than one gallon of rubber left, so I mixed it up and got every drop out of the containers I could and poured it in, and it was about a pint too little, but an old trick of floating something weighted right like this plastic drink…

The rubber positive of this keystone is cured and out of the mold now, I had JUST enough rubber to make it as the 2nd photo shows how thin the corner is, but with the plaster backing I will be adding it will be good. The original this was molded from I removed from a building around 1977 that was at 1 West 111th St in NYC on the corner of 5th Ave, the buildings that were there have been replaced by this new one. Now I need to set up to cast the 4″ deep plaster backing for this. I like this pourable rubber, it’s also a lot less…

The first pressed clay is now out of the mold and she came out with a very minimal amount of surface defects that have to be fixed by hand. In the 1890s when these pieces were made the workers pounded the clay in using a small sand bag to ram the clay into the details and eliminate the little “creases” that I seem to get between pieces of clay laid in and pressed next to each other. Might help too if the clay was a little more moist and softer but I hesitate to add water since more water causes more shrinkage. To get a batch custom mixed to add…

I decided to take the steps needed to be able to produce this little keystone in kiln fired terra cotta, now after several steps- the final step is pictured,  I have the plaster piece-mold to do it once it dries out.

Now I have the very first hand-pressed clay from the new plaster mold out and drying, it took 50# of clay to press the design, and about 10# of that was removed during the final work on it. Now it will set loosely under plastic to slowly, evenly dry out over the next week to 10 days, it will need to be 100% dry before it can be fired in the kiln. I plan to press a second one either in the same white clay, or the red clay. The photos show the progression from start to finish, with the back of the sculpture being made exactly the same way…

The first cast in the dirty bronze finish

Now I have this cast finished with the weathered terracotta finish.