Theatrical Photos

I don’t feel like writing for once, but here are the photos as promised:

View when you walk in

The most important view, not reproducible in photos

Makes great shadows... kind of like xrays...

One of my favorite teeth

Profile

Soon I will do my usual budget info and “Things Learned“ entry…

Open Studios Success!

I had over 300 visitors over the course of the weekend!  The building received over 700, but I imagine most people got lost and didn’t hit every studio or were scared by the room full of teeth and didn’t bother trying to come in.  Here’s what they missed:

My studio door: Old Arsenal work outside, New teeth work inside

Wall of real and fake teeth specimens

Book of printed Teeth Stories

Wall of Teeth Stories

Overall view of the whole setup

And just for fun…

Larry, Curly and Moe enjoying the view

I also took a ton of photos of the big piece by itself in super dramatic lighting.  I will post those next…

Teasers…

A few pics for you loyal readers out there (if you even exist!) of what’s coming this weekend.  By no means is this finished, but most of the teeth are in place…  I would say it is 83% there…

Ignore the pony in the background...

Don't mind the cat, she's just enjoying the view too

Casts some great shadows...

A view from underneath it... where the bed will be...

That’s it!  That’s all you get.  Come to the show this weekend to see the finished version for yourself and all the other little surprises I have in store…

Sooo Many Teeth!

This is apparently the result of going into production mode.  Shelves and carts and boxes and kilns full of teeth…

Kiln full of teeth...

Cart full of teeth...

Extra shelf in the studio, full of teeth...

Boxes full of teeth that have been dragged home on the T

And just for fun, a nice close up of some of my favorite broken teeth.  I haven’t transported these home yet since they are so fragile.  A surprisingly good photo, considering it was taken on my camera phone…

Broken Teeth

Production Mode

Last week was my first full week of production mode–woohoo!  Production mode is always my favorite part of any project–you get to just do it, machine style, without thinking anymore, whatever “it” may be.  The thought process part is over (or at least stalled for a while–I’ll probably have to think again when it comes time to actually install) and I get to just make stuff!  Freely!  I have to say it feels pretty awesome to just blast through casting, although I’m also going through the slip really fast!  I ordered a new 5 gallon bucket the previous week and it’s already 3/4 empty!  Thankfully that was the last bucket I’ll need to purchase–from now on I’ll either make slip out of the studio porcelain clay body by adding defloculant or make my own casting slip from scratch.  It’s great to have 2 buckets though, because I can cast that much faster.  I’ve managed to figure out a really nice rhythm of casting 4 molds at a time (I only have 4 mold straps and 8 molds) and then switching to cleaning up the last set of 4 while the new set dries in the mold.  It’s going great so far!  See for yourself!

beautiful porcelain casting slip

molds all lined up, waiting for slip

Yay production mode! This sort of represents 1 8hr. day of work

fresh casts in the newest molds, including the six parter!

these guys were fresh out of a bisque kiln, ready for the reduction kiln

the previous days' casts, mostly dry and ready for the bisque kiln

the hotbox is one of the best tools ever! helps dry out the molds during and after casts, as well as the casts themselves--totally speeds up the process, especially given the summer humidity

opening the bisque kiln and finding teeth mixed in with the pots