Some clues and a studio tour

The Clinkypaloosa Project

Sarah provided a few clues about our Clinkypaloosa project in her recent newsletter ("Magic Swords and Black Swans"). This is what she said:

1. The teaser photo she showed was of a medallion.
2. It is not a Blackberry Lane or a Minkiewicz Studios production piece.
3. This is one part of the project. 

Up until now, the project has been in Sarah's hands. Now that I am doing some of my part, it seems appropriate that I offer a clue of my own. Sarah said the secret wasn't about what this was, but about its purpose. With that in mind... 

The answer is in the name.

A Studio Tour

If you follow me on social media, you know that our new home in Michigan is surrounded by natural beauty. It sits on more than four acres of preserved wetlands, and the immediate area around the house was where the previous owner—a master gardener—enjoyed her hobby. I post a lot of pictures like this one!

The scent of these Korean Spice Viburnum is the first thing you notice when you step outside.

However, the real attraction with the new place was that I would finally be able to create separate work areas for the different parts of making ceramic horses. Materials used in casting and glazing cannot contaminate one another. When I had only one dedicated working space, it was necessary to turn it over in order to change tasks. Now I have a total of four spaces, two that are "flex" spaces and two used exclusively for studio tasks. 

Since I have been working on the Peritia molds, I'll show the two spaces for those activities. 

Master Molding Station

I make master molds with polyurethane rubber using plaster "boards" for structural support. The curing time for the rubber (16 hours) means it occupies the area for a while, so it was the first task I wanted to move out of my everyday studio space. The new house had just the right place for it in the basement. 

In the corner of the basement, there is a counter. It's usually where we set out snacks and drinks when everyone gathers to play pool or ping pong. Most of the time, the counter sits empty, so leaving a molding project to cure isn't disruptive. That is what is happening in the next photo; the first piece of Peritia's mold is curing inside the clamped box.

The only downside is that the counter is standing height, which makes it hard for a small person (like me) to peer inside the mold box. That's why my portable ladder is there. It is one of my favorite purchases for the new house, which has a lot of high cabinets. If you look closely, you can see that it has "socks"! It came with cute little knitted booties to protect the floor. 

Could those be ears peering out?

There is a lot of crossover between the tools I use to make master molds and those needed to make plaster production molds, so those normally live in the Spider Room. I do keep the master mold inventory in the storage cabinets that line the wall to the left. When everything was in one room, the heat from the kiln tended to dry out the rubber bands. 

The Spider Room

The number one item on my wish list for the new house was a place (and the wiring) for a larger kiln. The new house has a large utility room in the basement that is perfect. The only problem was that it already had a massive, eight-legged occupant. My son worried that Shelob might be sensitive to fumes from the kiln, so he eventually relocated her. She—or maybe some equally large relatives—regularly returns. That's how the room got its name. At least visitors have some warning. 

It's a long, narrow room with cement floors. It came with storage shelves on the back wall and a sturdy workbench on the other end. Most importantly, it was easy to wire for a 240V outlet. (Setting up the kiln vents through the masonry wall is proving to be a little more involved.) 

One of my goals for the Spider Room is to have all of my mold-making, casting, and firing tools handy. I can't begin to count the number of hours I have lost over the years looking for things like my Ford Cup. That's the little black funnel hanging from the hook in the middle of the wall. It's a unique tool used for testing the viscosity of slip; nothing else does that job.

The studs already had a series of hooks. To that, we added shelves set inside the studs so I could take advantage of that space as well. If you look closely at the shelves with the glaze bottles, you can see two "Hammies". Sarah sculpts them to capture the expressions her husband, Chris (nicknamed Hammy), makes. Knowing how little Chris likes them, I think the yellow one is especially appropriate for the Spider Room. The blue one might as well have been Alan. "What do you mean the kiln needs to be vented through that cinderblock wall..."

At the other end of the room is the workbench. Like the counter for the master molds, the workbench was standing height. I didn't want to do all my casting and clay assembly standing on a ladder, so I had Alan cut the legs down to desk height. The deep grooves in the bare wood surface are difficult to clean, so we recently purchased a laminate countertop. 

(Cleaning the clay keeps the area from becoming dusty, which is important because clay contains silicates that can harm your lungs.) 

I love that the pattern on the (clearance rack) laminate top looks like spills of ceramic slip

The two containers with the green lids sitting on the left side of the bench are wet boxes. I plan to turn the long, shallow drawers under the bench into wet trays. I'll make a separate post about those and why they are useful. 

One last teaser

This is a peek at the project that required the larger kiln. She's traditional scale, so that gives you an idea of just how large the new kiln is. Depending on how I stilt her, I can fit 6-8 inside. Only one could fit in the old kiln, and only if she wasn't stilted, which meant she couldn't be glazed. 

That's a glimpse into the casting part. I haven't touched on the upstairs areas where I paint and glaze. I am still organizing that space, so I'll save it for later. In the meantime, keep an eye out for more teasers both here and in Sarah's newsletters.