I happened to find this for sale and bought it because he is exactly the same as a couple I had removed from a pair of buildings at 522-524 E 12th street in NYC way back around 1977. Even the mold number 1097-L is identical. These were usually installed with two other sculptures: a small lion keystone, and a larger keystone depicting Athena with a battle helm, 522 and 524 however lacked the little lion heads and instead used a smaller version of Athena on the top floor where the lions would normally appear. These were selected out of a catalogue of sorts as these three sculptures can be found…

From a recent photo of the demolition of a 1917 church on Avenue A and 11th street in NYC, clearly no one has bothered to save even these;

I removed the four lion blocks from the kiln, all four turned out perfectly on the new kiln schedule, but the cherub plaque still had his face blown off. Here’s a photo of two lions on my bookshelf as bookends.

The kiln shut off just about the time I figured on after 24 hours and 20 minutes. I watched it just hit 2061 degrees and then it went to the 10 minute hold. I was able to calculate the temp rise in the last stage of 80deg/hour to be 1.333 degs per minute and the Bartlett controller kept it just about dead on, and shut off almost to the minute I had calculated while I was  waiting for it to shut off. I saved the firing profile as user 6 to use again as-is if the load turns out fine. I set the timer clock on the vent fan to…

Here’s what I programmed in the kiln controller for another round of torture tests, and yes, it’s a form of torture to open a kiln lid, look inside and see your work ruined: Segment / Temp rise per hour/ Temp in degrees  F -60 to 200 (hold for 6 hours) -80 to 280 -100 to 550 -80 to 750 -150 to 1100 -180 to 1700 -80 to 2060 Hold: 10 minutes That make it about a 24 hour firing plus the cooling down.

I fired four of the little hand pressed lions blocks, a cherub plaque and the single section Art Deco in the kiln, and amazingly when I opened the lid, four little shattered lion faces stared up accusingly at me from the bottom shelf of the kiln. I figured at first maybe the vent is cooling the kiln too rapidly but these were not cracks they were blown up under pressure from steam forming inside the clay. Despite being dry I thought, and sitting them in front of two box fans set on high for three days they apparantly were not really dry. I looked at what makes up the “Slow…

These have not been fired in the kiln yet, but I couldn’t resist setting them up for a good photo since the light was so perfect.

I had a really odd dream this morning, what I remember is discovering my office type desk chair rolled very easily on the street in NYC and at first I was with someone else messing around with rolling on our chairs at night, but I soon found a steep street and went down the hill by myself and it was getting very steep and I was picking up speed fast on the chair. Soon I was coasting down at a steady spead about 30 mph and the downward incline continued for miles, I just laid back in the chair, took my shoes off and was enjoying the crusing but quickly…

The mold is finished for this little lion block and the first hand-pressed terracotta is awaiting firming up before I can take it out in a couple of hours. The little lion looks like this in the cast-stone version I’ve had for many years as a wall plaque, but now with the addition of the block he originally had, it will make a nice bookend.        

I  gave quite a bit of thought as to how to provision these to mount on the wall and make it simple for clients to do so, unlike the cast stone you can’t embed steel in the clay for a hook, so I came up with a way to slide the heavy wire I use through two attached studs through a premade horizontal hole made in both in the moist clay. The screw slid through shows how it would work, and the hole where the wire is slid through can be filled locking the wire in place since it can’t slide out the other side: Meanwhile, I am boiling the…