Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Kiln Fire results and Building the Wall

Last night I went to school to see the results of the firing of the upper and lower portion of the figure.  It turned out 99% perfect (except for the shoe I knocked off while putting it in the kiln ).   My adviser put the extra shoes I made into the kiln when I got there so they'll be ready when I install on Wednesday.  I had to wait until the firing was complete to start on the wall because I had to measure the distance between the floor and the hands so the hands would roughly be at the window's bottom edge.  The shrink rate for this type of clay is 13% but the piece, after being kiln dried, shrank more than I anticipated and is 35" rather than 36.5" and the hands rest at 17.9"  John helped me build the frame for the wall last night.  

Here are the plans I made originally...
 Here is the result:









Tonight we're going to distress some slats (hehheh) and nail them to what will be the 'outside' of the wall.  Then we'll put drywall on the other side and make it look like the inside of an old house.  I only have a four by four space so it's a little bit small, but because the figure is so small I think it works.