I gave the back legs of this sandblasted guy a soak in vinegar and water to remove some investment material, and accidentally created a patina example. Check out the different patches the legs. The vinegar darkened his legs, forming a patina. The spots where I held him without gloves didn’t darken as much, due to the patina being impeded by skin oils. The spots, like the claws, where I’d just taken a grinder to, patinaed as well, but went golden. Fascinating! This is why it’s best to sandblast a piece right before patinaing it, to give yourself a clean spotless surface!
Sandblasting is also useful for spotting surface flaws, which is why I sandblasted this guy even though I wasn’t ready to patina him.

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/fPkyjM

Most of the tiny ladders failed to cast. I’ll get a chance to cast some more soon, so it’s no big deal. They were a tricky propositions

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/fNGJfr

I’ve finished up my bronze casting marathon with one last pour at the Pratt fine art center open house. Now, time to finish all my bronzes, and get back to clay!

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/fMYQXP

The past few weeks I’ve been putting together an exciting piece for a show focused on the marine life of Puget Sound.  The piece builds from some of my earlier work with chickenwire, but uses cloth and plastic fencing in addition to the chickenwire. The end result is an abstracted 9ft long alabaster nudibranch, which gives the piece its title, Dirona albolineata. Here’s a sneak peak of the piece!

The opening is tonight, from 6 to 9pm. The show is called Between the Tides: an Intertidal Art Show, and a portion of all the sales will be going to support the Vashon Beach Naturalist society! It’s out on Vashon Island, at Ignite Gallery. Come say hello if you’re in the area!

Hey folks!

May 4th, a week from Saturday, is Teacher Appreciation Weekend at the Bellevue Art Museum in Bellevue, Washington. As part of this celebration, I’ll be giving a workshop on making my beasts. So, if you want to come hear about how to teach little monsters to make little monster, this is the workshop for you.

I’m going to be tailoring the workshop to the classroom, going over the basics of how I make my beasts.  Since the techniques I use are fairly simple, the workshop should be informative and accessible to folks at all levels of clay experience.  I’ll even be covering the idea of air dry clay, which can make sculpting accessible even to educators without access to a kiln.

Bellevue Art Museum has set up a facebook event with more information about the Teacher Appreciation Weekend and the workshop. You can also just go straight to their website to RSVP.