At left you can see old Gramps waving in the reflection of the amazing tripod legs of the Orsini Di sculpture. Plans are to retouch the face a bit with stains which is a shame because the finish is mostly fired glaze. This is a very large piece about two feet tall and one of the most ambitious done here, to date in earthenware.

You may have never heard of Eva Ionesco but she is a French avant guard model with a famous Mom in the same field and thanks to the web we have access to her historic pictures. This is a rendering done on plaster with pencil and mixed media. Yes it is finished! At bottom the aged child figure was abandoned for years and I just found it recently while cleaning the kiln shed. It is in raw clay on a very strong armature. Sculpture looks so good after it ages in adverse conditions for a few years.

The shelf legs in the shed were replaced with chains to accommodate the new flooring. Everything is ready for the interior decorating and paint on the outside when the weather lifts. Visit INTS, the free institute that brings you clay sculpture and mold making here at grampa’s.

Well this update is a bit behind schedule.. Thursday! but not that bad, considering that there is little that is photogenic in Grampa’s spring clean-up. The ’shelves’ slash ’walls’ have worked out majorly in the kiln shed repair but the darn roof is still leaking around the skylight and it was a simple water leak like this that rotted about a third of the building away in the first place.

Sculpturewise there has been work done on the Vespa and Scooter piece but nothing more than finishing. You can see Varron telling the story of how his plane crashed and I think that is just so cute, considering that is was the cat Squeeks’ that actually did it in. A copy of Amy showed up sans arms and I have no idea where they went but I think it had something to do with the original molding process that I was using at the time. The base was also gone so I posed her in a bush and it’s quite effective. She is slated to be remolded in the new process that will make the piece slightly smaller due to remolding shrinkage.

The letters for the Clayarts.ca sign that will go on the newly refurbished kiln shed for all the road traffic to see (such as there is on a camp road) are just about finished and a real knock out with their gold leaf center, routed oak outline and wrinkle black casing. Putting on the tape for the black casing is proving to be a longer job that any other operation, even the jigsawing.

This is the ’C’ from the clay arts sign, gold leaf (artificial) reflecting in the sun. First Grampa tried to use Spruce, then Monica said they needed to be larger so I used some lovely White Oak that she gave me. She complained when I Gold leafed them at class today but what the hey!

That’s an adobe clay torso called ’Natalie’, the ’N’ figure in our alphabet of figures showing off her butt and bust. She has a full fine mold that will be shown in weeks to come. Varron, our recent sex-change sculpture that used to be Varro still looks a bit fem to me. Later, I’ll show the original porcelain Varro with her odd hand gesture and you can be the judge. My little cat ’Squeeks’ has been pictured sleeping in the sculpture forest   here   and now she’s broken Varron’s’ Corsair but that’s no prob, I have to prepare it for remolding in the new technique and busted parts are par for the course. Vespa is proving to be a challenge in a variety of ways, but I’m in no rush. I think I’m going to make the Cat a bit larger, just to increase the contrast between her naked body and Scooters’ claws. The idea of the sculpture is to show the risk of getting scratched compared to the fun and trust you can have with a cat. Perhaps it needs to be a kitten? I just don’t know.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the font came out of Paint Shop Pro and is the Italic version of Palatino Linotype, traced in pica 300 right off the screen onto copy paper.. Yahoo!    No Printer nonsense! The ’Y’ is an interpretive innovation.

The pictures don’t really do these sculptures justice because of photo problems that might just get solved with a new camera especially for this purpose. There are plans afoot to build a new Raku kiln and do something that raku potters have never done, to my knowledge and that is to cast or press figures in raku clay and then fire in traditional methods. These two figures, Daria and Lita are shown here in false Raku style done in earthenware and glaze.

Winter is just not done around here. We woke up this morn with an April snow storm busily changing my plans to work outside on the damaged kiln shed.

The reclining nude Femearah shown below is the original master in raw earthenware and oiled with linseed. It will have to be either disassembled to replace the lost mold or another original will have to be made. Madebroken is the longstanding trademark of the ’Alphabet of Nudes’ since the early 80’s.

While Grampa was bashing around on the half rotted floor of the kiln shed Punxsutawney Phil poked his head out of his temporary lair and I say that because it’s where my pet (wild) skunk winters. So here he was, hesitating while Gramps banged off a dozen shots with the Fuji and he even did a groundhog standup for us. He did see his shadow by the way and we got snow the very next day, just like he said.

The sculpture we are working on this week, and probably for some time to come is a casting from a rejected mold that needed redoing, called Vespa and Scooter and is the ’V’ figure in our alphabet of nudes.

The kiln shed is still underway in maintenance and repair and the ’before’ pictures are very nasty.

Part of the new molding procedure, which I will outline in a special edition after it’s fully tested, is to make modifications to the originals and all for a wide variety of reasons. Woo Ty Ling has been given a pair of cats because the pose that I tried to develop with her legs bent to her chest, reminiscent of François-Auguste-René Rodin works.. didn’t work. These cats are still in need of a decent face and some hair detail but the pictures show the development of the new design.

Varron with his new Corsair model plane used to be a girl named Varro. As a girl the face was too narrow and the chest a bit too masculine as well as the pose. So my first sex-change sculpture has just occurred, which is cool because I need more boys.

Yanina is fine with her book, no mods needed, Misti is always great as is, Tara might get some cosmetic surgery and the main job this week is the ongoing development of the ’My Sister’ pair who needed thicker thighs and a flattening of Jillian’s chest to tone it down a bit. Heather’s curly hair is still great. Tug has his little girl friend; Celi back where she belongs.

You must remember that all the clay figures shown here are hand made including the molds and all original with no commercial counterparts. We do supply some local people with greenware but pretty much at cost or below, just to see how they get finished. These are primarily just Grampa’s art pieces and will eventually be shown in a our galleries and most already are. All pieces were made many years ago and the design of each is being revisited and any modifications needed are being made. The Varro figure tended to look boyish so the name was changed to Varron and the appropriate mods made, shown next week. ’My Sister’ is two girls; the younger being fascinated by her older sister, who is telling a story. Both the older girls’ chest design and the shape of all the legs have to be modified and this is done in greenware from the first edition of the molds. The new molds will be of higher quality and cast from the new design.

Mike and Jason were having fun on the trikes, trying to keep from getting stuck in the clay. Mega Mud Bath!

Below are three local crafts people at class Wednesday, Helen, Monika and Renata and as usual we had a good time!

To Daniel and Ted who have just tuned in, it’s a shame there isn’t more interesting projects underway but the good old "Maintenance" beast has intervened and much of the place needs some serious upgrade plus a genuine clean-up.

You can see the general state of the Kiln Shed and ol’ Gramps looks a bit grumpy and in desperate need of some grooming. That’s what happens when you discover that the support structure of your fav shed is all rotting away. We have the ’Anything Interesting’ photos of fog, sunset and trees and some of my yellow zucchini that wintered quite well but is ready to be seeded.

At the bottom is a mock-up in plasticene of a planned sculpture, nice legs, shame about the face. These small forms are only meant to explore the overall balance of the figure and not supposed to be anything more. Two more planters came out of the woodwork, a bonsai and a cactus style. Both molds were lost years ago and need to be redone.

Well a fine Hello! to my brother Ted in Van, I hope he looks in and He and his Family are doing well.

With the rain begins Spring Maintenance because that’s when the out-building roofs begin to leak and there is an awful mess from over the winter and last fall. The Duncan Kiln needs new switches and the studio electrical system has been converted to 100 amps. Both the Kiln shed and the Garage need a desperate clean-up and I will show the after pix in the following weeks. Another Quilla greenware bit the dust as I was watering the plants and bumped her with my elbow.

While attempting to get the new (good used) Computer Kiln operating, I discovered the downdraft fan located on the bottom had suffered greatly from the moisture and heat from a kiln that operates as high as cone 8 (2400 F). It was sandblasted, painted with heat resistant paint and had a new blade made up from sheet metal, installed. Lookin’ good! Now to continue on with the wiring.

Very proud, we are today as the Namronsoar.com site ’The Institute of Non-Theoretical Science’ undergoes a facelift. Click the new Keypad picture at right or the banner below to see for yourself. Naturally the old index is available in all it’s Sideshow Glory. The Kawi gastank looks good with gold leaf (fake) under the light show. It looks like I kept the Zucchini a bit too long because all they are good for now is seed, purty huh?

Shown are two samples of the erstwhile Catalog that is in the works. Few of these will sell but are there just in case and supply a method of preparing for future shows.

You can see the boys out checking the ice and I have to tell them that today it turned dangerous with the wind. There are now 2 1/2" sharp rifts everywhere because it doubled over itself unevenly, probably runner breakers.   Grampa’s DN Iceboat Page

How does a Gastank from a customized motorcycle find it’s way into a Clayarts website? Well it’s all art and the word Clay in some quarters means ’raw material’. When Spring comes, Grampa starts to think about outside projects so that means customizing and this year we will be completing the Kawi 550 and making Kawi Galleries 4, 5 and 6. As these pictures are moved to the Galleries there will be a complete description of methods used here.

Watch the Light-Show Test   or Click on the picture at left to see a short movie.

At bottom, more pictures of Jason pulling a busted snowmobile and smashing the tail light of the tow machine in the process. He was having lots of fun polishing the Arctic Cat for days on end, then he took it for a ride the next day and popped a cylinder.. dear dear.

Every now and then Grampa takes a picture that isn’t much to look at, but in Paint Shop Pro it takes on a whole new look. Using the newly discovered ’Enamel’ setting and a few others as well, some very interesting ’Op Art’ results. The pix shown, at left, is an upside down version of the one at the bottom of this weeks page and for some reason looks better.. Wadda You think? Enlarge the Jpg    Pictured Left    to see how beautiful this is and it all just started out as a curious clay scraping. Enlarge these to full size to see the beautiful wallpaper effect. (Click the little plus sign that replaces your cursor after you enlarge from this page)

We are beginning to do the decorative centerpiece style planters, Modern Era planter, Maya13 planter, Bonsai planter, First Head planter, Cactus planter and possibly one for the REO Fairy. They contain a lot of slip, are very heavy and invariably leak all over the place because of the tremendous pressure. You will notice the Mod planter is in a clay barrel and it’s a good thing too because it burst it’s seams with the two foot pressure-head it carries when full. Damn heavy to empty too! You might notice that the Mod planter has an end missing in the mold.. well it’s made of scrap from the cut-out.

More Snowmobile pix of the boys, Bill and Jason with their ridiculously overpowered Suzuki 440cc and 600cc machines. Next week there will be a mixture of clay and motorcycle projects as I can’t resist the urge that takes over every spring, to go outside and work on a bike.

The picture at left of the Kyra mold displays an interesting phenomenon and it all happened by accident. For years now I have tried to show students how; with one eye closed you can turn a mold cavity into a positive so it looks like the sculpture it will make. Both mold pieces are negative or dished-out as a cavity.. Bet you can’t tell! The toughest part of slip casting is emptying a large mold like the Mod planter or the Kyra in a steady stream without letting it ’Glug’.

Monika wanted a Quilla figure with a castle and a patch of sand too, so.. I think her Birthday is coming up. Happy Birthday Moni! (Also notice the Animal Print influence in the pix below) On another note; Obviously the place is still a disaster and it’s still too cold to lay the new floor. The two planters shown are actually mold pairs. Part of next week is up already with some fancy Photo Shop Abstracts.

Incidentally, and I think I might agree; Jason thinks the Quilla figure is a depiction of a young negress because of her nose and her curls. I imagine these children of the ’Beach Scene’ to be French, so Quilla is of that extraction, although how this occurred is beyond me. I can’t do likenesses so I just make the figures and then figure out who they are and where they came from.

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