Post #382912 by Babalu on Wed, May 28, 2008 7:53 AM

Paipo - Yeah, ya gotta let those negative mishaps roll off of ya like water off a frogs butt. I am well into the 3rd bowly and having fun with how I can step up the design . Your right, the reason for that explosion was the air being trapped behind that bird man medallions (2 of them fired out ok)...Normally, I would attach something like this in the same fashion that you see me putting the added base on on page 11. I would score, or rough up the surfaces of the back of the medallions and the surface I want to adhere it to with a fork or something like that. by adding H2O while your doing this, you create a kind of slippy glue out of the clay...press the pieces into position together firmly as you are working out any air behind. I indent the edge around the medallion and add a small coil of clay and smooth out. Sometimes, I just build up on the surface of the clay instead...like I did with your Creature mug. Your mug was not a added medallion. I will do a little picture demo for you later...pictures are worth a million words. I was really pushing the bowl medallions as the clay was drying very quickly in that area and it was hard to get those surfaces scored up nicely to create that slippy clay glue needed. I am approaching the construction of this 3rd bowl a little differently as to not have that problem this time.

Trav - Thanks for bouncing in man...."Pro"...no, sorry...I'm just one dude of a very few that are hand building in clay and posting on this Site at the moment. Ceramics is a lifetime of learning, and I still have plenty of life left (I hope). I could show you some work from other hand builders out there that would just rock your socks off. As it stands, this is just a hobby for me...I get a kick out of sharing processes with others, that's all. One the advantages that you get with hand building in clay is being able to have under cuts and other sculptural elements that you just can't mold....like this bowly...it can't be made into a mold...and as far as being a "pro" mold maker...sorry, nope on that one too man...It's folks like Bowana, Squid, Monktiki, C-Al, and a few others around here on TC that are the ones who are the local pros. These are the cats that are the ones punching out a living from their mold making.

Hey Kel, Okie Dokie...talk to ya laters...