Making progress on this model, here’s a couple of time-lapse videos so far, newest at the top; 1/26 Uploaded the longer video to-day, the design progress can be especially seen near the end;
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James Scoville Elmslie 1884 “Sullivanesque” mold
The plaster-piece mold for this is done, waiting for the last section to set before taking it apart, and finishing up the last segment of a time-lapse video of it. It took 125# of plaster and some 7 gallons of water, about half of that water will evaporate out. It will be probably 2 weeks with fans blowing on it to dry it out enough to use for pressing the clay into. This is exactly how the working molds were made for all of the Elmslie “Sullivaesque” terracotta, and all of the similar architectural terracotta as well. About the biggest difference between then and now is only in my using…
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Two new models in the works, Scoville lunette and Washington Irving school pier capital W-1
I printed out the two full sized reference images I need for the two planned models, a tape measure opened to 24″ is for visually scaling the sizes in the image. The one on the right is a W-1 pier capital design from the Washington Irving school, Hammond Indiana, the one on the left is a lunette design from the James Scoville building in Chicago. The Scoville lunette is from an assembly of two that were sold at an auction outfit for some $15,000, while the pier capital from the 1936 Hammond Indiana school was designed by George Grant Elmslie and William Hutton in the Sullivanesque style by Louis Sullivan.…
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Model from the James W. Scoville, Adler, Sullivan, Elmslie Chicago building
I’ve begun the process last night to take my design towards making it in hand-pressed kiln fired terracotta, that requires two additional mold making steps, the first of which is making a rubber positive master cast using the new rubber mold, the second step is making a plaster piece-mold taken off the rubber positive. Shown below is the rubber positive that was poured in last night- the remaining cavity not filled with that amber colored rubber will be filled with plaster to save on expensive rubber since only the face is the important portion of the design. The amount of rubber shown in the mold was 2 gallons total, and…
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Another model from the James W. Scoville, Adler & Sullivan designed, Chicago building
The Virginia Museum of fine art which has a few artifacts from this building also has at least one of these lunettes with a very similar design on it as the spandrel panels have. I like the shape of it as well, I have no plans to but easily could make the surrounding flat pieces for it if a client wanted them. I will be working on this model very soon, of course it takes time and this type of work is done when I have time, and more time for the various mold making processes to get done, but progress photos will come along here soon enough. This would…
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Louis Sullivan “Sullivanesque” design
I just ordered the two gallons of pourable mold rubber I need to “convert” my “Sullivanesque” design that was recently finished- into a form I can take a plaster piece mold from for pressing terracotta into. Two gallons is not enough to fill the mold, it is only enough to pour about 1″ deep, the rest of the depth will have to be plaster to save on the costs of not having to buy two more gallons of expensive rubber.
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Louis Sullivan, Elmsley, Schneider James W Scoville building Chicago, mold
Now with the clay model done and ready to make the mold of this interesting webbed lotus flower motif, I have begun that process today and will be finishing it to-morrow A timelapse video of the process; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBhOYdwVyhU
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Louis Sullivan, Elmsley, Schneider James W Scoville building Chicago, model finished 12/7/2018
I’m finished with this Sullivanesque model now and plan to start making the mold to-morrow morning. it’s moist clay, somewhat firmer than it was as it started losing moisture, but it’s still delicate and a paint brush can leave marks on the surface so I have to almost flow the first coat of rubber on rather than firmly brushing it on. I wanted to get the mold made before it dries since as it dries and becomes completely dry the clay shrinks about 15%, and then when pressed clay copies are made those would also shrink almost that much, so the double shrinkage of about 25% would seriously reduce the…
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Louis Sullivan, Elmsley, Schneider James W Scoville building Chicago, progress for 11/17/2018
A timelapse showing some basic rough texturing of the model's background.
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Louis Sullivan, Elmsley, Schneider James W Scoville building Chicago, progress for 11/9/2018
Some more progresss for today! And today Nov 10th. The sales link for the pressed terracotta is here https://www.urbansculptures.com/cart/product/sullivanesque-panel-after-james-w-scoville-chicago-nr-ls-2/ There will be an interior cast-stone version available first.