All three pieces came out of the kiln just perfect Two cherubs given an aged finish for a NYC client, the yellowish hue is from reflections from the wood floor and the lights fooling hte camera, they don’t have any yellow on them.

The first pressed terracotta of this lion came out of the kiln perfect, it wound up the same size as the originals it’s based on that came from a tenement at 90 Ridge St NYC 6″ square. These would make very nice bookends.

I decided to see what would fit in the kiln and as long as these were ready to go, I turned it on. I was able to fit one of the cherubs and the little square lion on the bottom, and one cherub on the upper shelf. the one on the shelf is for a client- it had to be trimmed down an inch on the back to reduce the depth to fit in the client’s 3-1/2″ deep cavity left by removing bricks in the wall. The one on the bottom is the first one and I typically keep the first ones, so it’s full depth, same with lion which…

The 3rd pressed cherub is waiting a little while to stiffen up before it can be taken out

I got busy with someone, but I managed to get this mostly set up for to-morrow to finish and then make the plaster mold for it. 3 insert pieces for the face done, and one more section left to go. Sept 16 I finally got around to pressing the first piece in a new mold finished a week ago, after a little cleaning up of surface defects he looks pretty good!

I set up my clay model for the mold and the mold rubber along with the plaster and clay I ordered have arrived so I’m all set to do this mold and the plaster mold for the cherub, and set up the grotesque 285 to do it’s plaster mold too. Hopefully in a couple of days I’ll have this new design actually available, and 2 new molds for pressing clay into. Cast #1 and 2 are out, now to let #2 dry out so it can be finished for the client. It took 5 gallons to fill the mold. Sept 15 The client’s cast is finished now in the green…

I had to do a little artistic license modification on account of a couple of “layers” in the wings design not quite being far enough out from the backing, so I wound up extending one of the flat ring “gears” up a little further than the original design had. I also need to overlay another thin run of alternated wing design over the large one as it has that on the original and on what would be a bird’s tail feathers which were represented next to the vertical gears the ribbon winds around. A lot of fine detail yet to finish, some will have to be omitted because it’s just…

I started the setup for the cherub to get the original 4″ depth back again. The new rubber positive has been laid on 4″ thick foam board and the clay built up aound the perimeter. I have it roughed out for now, to-morrow I’ll finish texturing and cleaning up the clay part and I can start pouring the 4 side sections to start with then. There’s virtually no undercuts on the design at all, so the face/front can be done in one large plaster mold section, 5 sections total. Sept 7 One more section to pour left to go on this- the large “base” that can be done in one…

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…