BlueCairn

 Pushing some small sculptures through the kiln after I was give the hint that my more sculptural works would be appreciated for an up coming local show.

 Both sides of a cairn that came out of yesterdays kiln. Now it just needs basing.

Here's a blast from the past... a stop motion video from one of last years blog posts showing how these forms are made. It's all pretty strait forward, but these forms are used as blank canvases, they are an excellent vehicle for play.

BlueDream

Well here's the finished piece... it made it through the first round of construction last winter, and now it's made it through the last weekends kiln experiment without any unforeseen what-nots taking it in whole a new direction, (whew).

A quick look at the results of the low-fired yellow glaze infills from last weekend's experiment.

The whole point of this project originally was to test out a idea that would allow me to base works and get results similar to what we would get in the bronze studios.

What I have in mind is built around a simple assembly of welded threaded rod and angle iron, lost-styrofoam cast bronze spacers, and a base.

I started off by sinking the cairns in a bucket of sand so they can be leveled off. Next came the expanding foam... It's Great Stuff eh?

I filled up most of the interior volume with this stuff to keep the weight down and help make it bottom heavy.

After the foam cured, it was a simple matter to sink the welded steel assembly into a concrete plug. The process still needs a bit of refinement, but I'm a bit stoked on how it worked out.

The cast bronze spacers let the piece "float" over the base.

This system allows me change my mind... I can make a base switch if I need to. After all, it's all about presentation and that's still not one of my strong points.

Here's the finished video of this piece making it's way through the studio. Even as a stop-motion, it's a bit long. There's so much that I left out that it almost seems wrong, but hey, ya gotta pick and choose what to show to keep it as short as you can.

PS...
The music might not quite fit the mood of the video, but the kids thought it'd be a good touch.

Sprigging YoYos

Well I couldn't wait to get cracken on trying out one of the new sprigs molds. These were as much fun to use these as I hoped they would be. I gave them a try on a new series of YoYo canisters that Ron Philbeck showed us how to create last week in his videos part 1 and part 2. (The YoYos are proving to initially be way harder to make than he made it look on his videos. I'm having to give these suckers a few tosses to get a handle on them.) My hope is that these sprigs might help me create the "speed bumps" on the sides of my kitchen canisters that I've been mulling over for a few years. It's worth finally giving it a try.

?????

I'm also finally getting around to trying a low fire premixed glaze in an effort to create an elusive effect that I'm hoping will finish off some sculptural works for local showings next week. This will be another round of "all or nothing" attempts. You think I'd know better by now, but the Hammer of Judgment waits... This is the first time I've played with glaze from a jar. I can't wait to open the kiln tomorrow night.

This is a peice from a post last winter... I'm filling in the craters in my MoonCrater White glaze with a Neon Yellow glaze in hope of creating a few hundred yellow fireflies that'll float on the surface of this piece. My fingers are crossed...

March Cairn

I've been patiently letting this winters cairns dry over the past 2 months. Three of Decembers cairns were dry enough to begin working their way though the kiln earlier this week. Even with long slow bisque, I was waiting to hear the "PoP!" in the middle of the night. The bisque was Wednesday, and I fired off the second leg of the project last night. This was the first glazing for the 3 works. One was designed as a multi-fired piece, needing at least one more trip through. Another has options... involving decals and a re-fire. The 3rd is what's shown here and might stop at this point, or I might try a low-fired blob of lipstick red crowning it's top. That's the problem with sculptural works... lots of fidget room.