This is the first update since Grampa’s opened and naturally it’s a couple of days late but there is lots of new things to see. It took all week to build the new Kayak and Kawasaki galleries so there was little done in the way of new sculpture. The Fairy REO figure has been distributed to about 10 people for the Christmas season including the Lady that commissioned it (Trudy) and we have yet to see it fired and glazed. The Beach Kids are being cast for the second time since the base collapsed and destroyed the figures. This is to be expected with experimental ceramic art. There are an abundance of Base pictures because they are so unusual to look at and I seldom worry about repeating a picture several times from different angles if they look artistic.

The whole place (Grampa’s Studio) is due for a facelift this winter with a brand new laminated floor to make it warmer and much easier to clean. Grampa is way to busy making stuff and needs to employ some trick for keeping the place respectable.

This is Christmas Day 2011 and marks the beginning of Grampa’s Weekly picture post. There is a lot going on right now what with the rebuilding of the lost gallery molds that were damaged in a fire years ago. There is an entire alphabet of clay figures that will be remolded, fired and glazed. The new Kayak pictures from last year and the new Motorcycle Customizing pix from this summer have all been debuted here.

Current projects are the REO figure, at right and the Beach Kids and it’s complicated base which has already collapsed, shown below.

The first full summer of customizing a Kawasaki 550 is on record. Chopped Front and Rear Forks, Custom Fiberglass Gas Tank, Handmade Ceramic Tail Lights, all honeycomb design.

The Galleries available today are    Kawi One    and    Kawi Two    and    Kawi Three    Others will be posted soon. Kayak Galleries are up.

This Teapot was hand built with molded slabs in a relaxed style and long spout, made last spring but never shown. A freeform checkerboard pattern was painted on with one-stroke black, covered with a crystal glaze that had mossy patches. It just happened to come out of the kiln on Monika’s Birthday and she liked it so much that I never even got to make tea with it. I’ll make another this year to demonstrate the slab technique. The boxes were completed but the first one fell out of the mold by accident. The Trivets turned out nice and the air inlet (shown previously) works on the molding process. Grampa is shown squeezing Balsam Tar out of the bark that is used for treating dry skin, and sitting on the ancient Ski Doo that still runs great. Also a Bald Eagle dropped in and gave me a nasty look as I photographed him.

Mike Madge had a few good runs with his DN (Detroit News) Ice Boat but unfortunately the ice just went away yesterday so that just might be it for this year. Click   Ice Boat    for more pix. You can see he has a passenger in a long shot below, uses my Aluminum Giant Bicycle to reconnoiter the ice, He and the boat look Great! ...and so does that bike.

The first three thumbnails below are from this time last year when the ice on Lake Superior was right for Ice Boating. A local teacher, Mike Madge and some friends from the States began using the area for this fascinating and exhilarating sport. These things can do a hundred miles an hour! Click   Ice Boat   to see more pictures and Update today. Click on the thumbs mentioned to see a hail storm that happened at the time and two short clips of Mike cruising by. We apologize for the poor quality and promise to improve our mini movies, soon, when Grampa gets a new camera.

After repairing the Sandy figure and also the box lid it was decided to make a detailed picture study on the preparation and procedure for making a mold from the mastered box pieces. The mock-up is never saved when a mold is cast and you can see the complex structure of it below as it is removed. I call the surfaces that join a mold together the "Tracks" and the dimples that locate them the "Ties" just like a Railroad. Some of my clay looks like ’Marble’ cheese, darker has more organics. All three mold sections broke their dams and spilled all over the place while I scrambled to find anything to shore them up. "Slips Happen" Next week is casting of the boxes and a Teapot made this time last year showing a fancy underglaze technique.

A Celebration this week at Grampa’s Weekly since it’s up and running full bore, all updated and linked. Moni’s page is fully functional. This page space was donated to Clayarts by Monika and I thank her for that. Clay class was last Wednesday and the new box and Sandy were the projects. I had no sooner returned home and set the pieces on a folding table when that interloper cat tore through the house again, in about two seconds, folding up the leg on the table and smashing the work all to xyz. That is to be expected with delicate things and I’m certainly entitled to some bad luck now and then. Both have been repaired and as a bonus, the Sandy figure has benefitted from the mishap because of the recast. The trivet had to have a drain installed as it vacuumed while emptying and sucked the side in each time it was poured. Notice I store the projects up high now.

Oh Yeah, I almost forgot. If you were expecting to see a new floor.. well Mother Nature put the kybosh on that for now since the floor has to be installed in warmer weather. The furniture is upset because the floor is being prepared for the Allure. I can hardly wait!

This is one of those weeks when very little was done with clay, mostly sorting and putting away in preparation for the new floor which is the floating laminate type that is waterproof. Jason brought an old Elmira stove that we cleaned up and converted to a cooktop type by removing the firebrick and reburner inside. The place is much warmer with this stove and it uses much less wood, as well. Many thanks to Jason and Jamie for this stove. A male cat followed one of my females in through the cat door at night and when I got up to see what all the commotion was about the cat ran up and down the front window sash several times knocking many of the plants over. He couldn’t remember how he got in, so I threw the doors open wide and he bolted. Clay class begins next week and the project will be the decorative box shown below as a mockup for replacing the mold that was so popular years ago. The pix showing the mess that the studio has become are the ’before’ pictures to the next set where the floor is fixed so that it can be cleaned easily.

Have you ever wondered what kind of a boat you could make out of found wood including Spruce, Pine, Oak, Ash and Fir? Probably not, but we’ll show you anyway. Free wood is everywhere, including old pallets made of Oak, door frames made of Douglas Fir, Bowling alley wood made of Ash, old wood siding made of Spruce and Pine and a lowly 2" by 4" washed up on the beach made of clear Pine. All must be sawn and planed (with a power plane) assembled with glue into one complete laminated boat called Mini-Yacht, Oiled and Varnished, covered with Canvas and fitted with a small mast and sail. Pictures of the    Original Kayak Construction   showing how it was being transformed into a Trimaran are found here. The idea was abandoned but the pix remain and there is another gallery coming up showing it’s original build on video. Stay tuned.

How you would repair a wood Kayak that has developed a considerable amount of wood rot? Well that is the subject of the   New Galleries   found at Grampa’s.

Grampa writes under the pseudonym of Namron Soar but it’s all boring Scientific stuff that no one ever reads. You can listen to him droning on about the same old thing again and again but don’t try to argue the point because it’s all Non-Theoretical, meaning there is little to actually discuss. Re-presented in this book is the comparison between Figmentalism/Idealism/Enlightenment, Plus, The Laws of Reality, Entitic Science, Nonreal Entitic Science and the new kid on the block; The Practical Laws of the Sphere.

To Read Brainworks    Click Here    for the Book Index and you can scroll down to find something that might interest you, like the topics mentioned above. Chapters Six and Eleven are even slightly funny. (No Chapters in ’Voice’ yet)

      Previous Book is all in ’Voice’    A Moderate Way