dmoola
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Posts by dmoola
dehydrate
2
So my first thought was that the clay that I was attempting to fire still had internal moisture that would need to be dehydrated. After a few quick searches on the internet I found that it was suggested to keep the kiln at low temp over night before firing. So last night after putzing around in the shop for a while I set the kiln to 150, vented the kiln by propping open the top and the peep hole and let it go for 12 hours.
I immediately wanted to set the kiln to fire up and bisque fire it. But I wasn’t going to be home today and didn’t want to risk another explosion while it was unattended. I’ll sit down tonight and fire it so I can watch it for the first few hours. After the temperature creeps past the boiling point I’ll feel better about leaving it run.
Hopefully it’s not another clay bomb. I just put a malformed bowl in there so it’s not a huge deal if goes kablooey.
Kaboom
0So I recently started playing with clay. I have a kiln after all, so why not?
It has been years since I’ve made bowls, pots, mugs and anything else with clay, so it sounded like fun. I made a small bowl, carved it all up with a pretty design and let it dry for a week.
Last night I was out in the shop and saw it was bone dry finally and put it in the kiln. A few hours later I ventured out to take a peek to make sure everything was going fine when I found this.
Oops. I guess I should’ve fired it at low heat for a while first to make sure there was no internal moisture left.
So until then I guess I just make sure quick crappy bowls until I get it figured out. No point in putting all that time into something fancy when this will be the outcome.
Anyone have some tips for me?
What to do next?
4I posted this on some of the social sites yesterday. I just have to fix some of the outlines and it’s done… i think. I’ve been futzing with this one for too long.
The question is: What to do next? What cartoon characters do I identify with.
Cartman? Butters? Bender? …. Thoughts or suggestions?
2nd painting: Chowder
1I finally got around to finishing my second painting. I’m really having fun with these. Simple, fun, bold… I think they’ll be a fun series to have around the house.
I decided to just put the brush down when I got this far. The clothing in this cartoon has a pattern to it. Originally, I planned on painting in all the clothes to be true to the cartoon but I kind of liked it simpler. I may go back and fix it later if I change my mind, but I also think the simpler Chowder will fit in with the rest of the cartoon characters I plan on painting.
And yes, the colors in my photo are a bit off because I took the photo in a dark basement room. I just didn’t care enough to photoshop it to make it look right. 
Next painting? I’m doing Roger from American Dad. I’m still doodling the ideas out.
C & G
1Years ago a few of us sat down and wrote notes to our future self. I just wrote a few calendar entries so I knew they’d pop up on my computer, phone and whatever else pulled in my calendar entries.
I was adding some meetings and deadlines to my calendar this morning when I saw this:
You know, it’s not as funny as I thought it would be 
Does anyone know a great Cake & Gun store?
She’s so fancy
0Calin, one of my friend’s daughter, absolutely loves Fancy Nancy. She’s a little princess and we love most of the same things. I hate children, but her – I understand. We love pink, we love glitter and all things sparkly… you know what I’m saying.
So one of my crazy whims came along… I decided I’m going to paint her a Fancy Nancy painting for her room. Don’t ask me where these ideas come from. I’ve never painted before outside a 5 minute watercolor for a blog post or something like that. But somehow I decided one of my current projects needs to be this painting.
I’d sit in front of the T.V. and put a little paint here, a little there and then move on to another project. It was pretty light and breezy. About two weeks later I had something decent. It was decent enough for my first painting, I should say. I was just happy it was recognizable… and had plenty of glitter mixed in.
One thing I did learn: Don’t paint in a dim room in front of the TV. When you take a photo or take it into the light it looks completely different. No duh, right? Well I didn’t think of that when I started.
So hungry. Diets suck. I just keep reminding myself it’s the first day of summer and I still can’t fit into that 2-piece bikini yet.
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