The rubber portion of the mold is almost completed, one additional application in about an hour will finish it, then it will cure overnight and I can build the plaster shell for it to-morrow. Once I have the shell done it can be taken apart and removed from the plaster master and I can cast a new plaster master to store away, once I do that I should be able to start making the positive rubber master mold. I can finish the rubber positive master mold but I don’t have any more molding plaster with which to make the plaster press-mold, either I’ll have to order a bag shipped UPS…

I have my master plaster cast taken from the original mold made from my hand-modelled 2007 clay master laid out on a board to prep for the new mold. I needed to do a little bit of repairs to the sides on this first, unfortunately the original clay model was fired in the kiln a year ago and for some reason I had not taken a plaster master cast from the first rubber mold immediately when it was made as is typical. That was probably because I had the original clay model, but later forgot I didn’t also have a plaster master and I fired the clay, as a result…

I now have my kiln back in my home studio after removing it from the gallery basement which seemed like the ideal place for it at the time I bought it. So it’s set up now at home where it’s much more convienient to monitor. I fired a couple of older raw clay original models with complete success, including the Astor Place subway beaver model which was just 1/4″ less tall than the inside of the kiln with the lid closed. I’m considering “converting” the Art Deco D5 model into a terracotta line, here’s the original clay model that I fired in the kiln a year ago after making the…

I have  the Nashville clients’ project finished, with the last two crates shipping in the morning, and the city pool projects’ concrete panel finished as well. The concrete pool panel turned out to be a major pain unlike any other! and to think, this is a donated sculpture and it was to be a simple matter to cast the concrete into the mold I made. After casting the first one there were two things I didn’t like, one was it had a lot of fair sized air bubble holes on the surface, the other was the acid stain I’ve used so well on many concrete casts absolutely looked all wrong…

A client who purchased an Art deco era theater and adjacent former store building recently contacted me for sculptures to install on the former store building. The one story brick facade of the store building was in very poor condition, enough that the facade had to be removed due to a bulge in the brickwork, and then be re-mortared back in place. The building’ name panel was preserved but the terracotta shield above it was cracked and missing a corner of it. It was decided to replace the broken shield with an Athena keystone (the nearby street names have a Greek theme, and there is a replica parthenon in Nashville…

Still very busy this week too trying to get other things done between the almost constant every other days rains and now the end of summer, the least of which is re-doing the brakes on my car which required several trips to NAPA and yet more to order a couple more parts, the other is finishing up a large mold for a concrete cast for the city pool building- they already started demolition on the old place and will start construction soon so my concrete cast has to be ready for installation. Last but not least is I switched over to a new computer system running Linux Mint and setting…

I have been busy this week, so I barely touched the model but I managed to get a little time on it today.

I finally got caught up with other client’s orders, crates and more so I did a little bit of work on this today at least, rough laying out the design as this begins.

As I completed my form for the shape yesterday, today I started work on laying out the model by pressing the clay into the form and rough sketching landmarks on the surface.

The Mulcaster building was once located at 1156-1162 (incorrectly designated as 1297 according to one source) Third Avenue, NYC (demolished ca 1965) on it’s facade was this spandrel panel, probably more than one: Dates: ca. 1885 Dimensions: 25″ x 28″ x 7 1/2″ Located in the Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Frost. Description: Pressed, fired red terracotta rectangular plaque with head of youth, a butterfly-boy or girl sipping nectar from blossoms through a straw. I decided to make my version of this 19″ high, 22″ wide which is the same proportion but a little smaller and this begins with the box form for the shape: