Some more progress for today, there’s a lot of fine detail as well as some interesting textures on the original highway section in the 1970s photo I’m using that is very faint and hard to see that might not translate real well into a reduced scale model of it like this For now I roughed out some of the details in the helmet and below it, and the ribbon below that which winds around the two gears. I had to really study the old photo to figure out what some of the lines were that I could make out and then I realized the lines were a continuation of the…

I now have the plaster piece-mold finished for this. it’s going to be pretty delicate so it will need a lot of gentle care when using it because of all the fine detail, but now I’ll have it to press clay into. I used up some almost way too soft clay I had left in a bag that was either re-wetted down or some clay scooped out of the back of another sculpture. I turned the mold over to remove the sections and the bottom section which forms the nose slipped a little and mashed the nose over some, so I’ll have to neater the nose up when I go…

The 294 keystone is out of the kiln now and looks very good, pretty heavy @ 30#

After a little straightening up I cast a plaster block the thickness I wanted to get the depth I want for the lion block. The plaster provides a firm solid surface for the clay, is easy to cast square, and since plaster stays damp a long time after it’s cast, it won’t shrink or bother the clay while I work on it. After applying a layer of clay around all four sides I used a metal carpenters’ square as a scraper to get reasonably 90 degree to the face and back- sides. Doing this also allows for having the clay texture on all the sides with no seam where plaster…

A small bit of progress on this model today, mostly on shaping the far “gear” andthe left lower “wing” I only spent a few minutes on it as I had been working on the little lion block and 3 casts for clients that need to be finished this week to ship them out.

I’ll let the little mold dry and see about pressing some clay in it. Meanwhile a pic of the original next to the final expanded rubber version- quite a dramatic size increase from 4-3/4″ to about 6-3/4″ The process wasn’t quite as exact or perfect as the rubber distributor implies, it probably works best on thin plaque shapes. I had placed it in the bottom of a full 5 gallon pail the last few days hoping the extra water pressure would help force more water into the rubber matrix which is how the expansion takes place- and help straighten the sides but it didn’t seem to expand any further.