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.

The expandable mold rubber is still expanding, now about 6-3/8″ from 4-3/4″ and still going. Hopefully it will level and even out soon once it’s fully saturated all the way to it’s center. I figured it’s 160% expansion Aug 4th The little expanding rubber lion looks like he has expanded about as much as it’s going to, some distortion evident on the sides but fairly easy to fix along with a few defects, so I’ making a quick and dirty plaster mold of it to press clay into and I’ll use that clay pressing as a model to work on, square up, refine and get a mold off that while…

A little more cleanup on her and she can sit around air drying for the next 4 weeks before firing in the kiln Aug 13th Getting ready to fire my Nr 294 keystone, she weighs 30# dry and has been drying for almost 3 weeks since I pressed her, so I’m going to wait until Friday to turn the kiln on, meanwhile I have her set up in the kiln ready to go. I can only fit one piece this size in my kiln, another dry panel I have ready to fire won’t fit in with this too. I have my full shelf on the floor raised off the floor…

The first pressing of the 294 keystone is out of the mold now and covered with plastic wrap so I can mess with cleaning her up to-morrow. It took almost 50# of clay.

I did some more work on the West side highway model. It has plastic behind it and it’s covered with plastic when not being worked on so it keeps the moisture in as much as possible so it doesn’t dry too fast. Even with spritzing it with water and covering it with plastic the clay still dries out, just slower, so the working time window is somewhat short, but as the clay goes from really soft to firming up, various stages in the modelling process can be done. Roughing out is done first, leaving more clay than needed so it’s mostly removing clay instead of adding on, and then as…

The 2 gallons of Vytaflex came today so I mixed it up and filled th 294 mold with it, the 2 gallons wasn’t quite anough to completely fill the mold, but as long as all the detail is covered it won’t matter as I have to add a 3-1/2″ deep plaster backer to the rubber when it’s cured anyway. Now it will need to sit and cure overnight before it can be removed from the mold. The rubber positive with it’s new plaster backing block is out of the mold, now the keystone is approximately the same depth the original 1895 sculpture was before I made a shallow mold of…

I found some time to do a little work on this West Side Highway model. The screw heads are just the right size for the rivets and much easier to use than hand forming every one of them by hand in the clay. The slots in the screws will get filled in before the panel is molded. I also roughed out the first eagle head a little bit. I also just ordered another 2 gallon kit of the rubber I need to cast a positive in the new mold for the 294 girl keystone, so next Friday I should be able to cast her, it will take the whole 2…