Tom Spleth and Casting Porcelain Boxes

Last Sunday, I went over to Tom Spleth's house to talk about a project he was working on and needed some help getting done. He had been prototyping porcelain boxes to put a series of prints of skulls into. We had a week to: construct a kiln, fire-proof a room, construct pouring jigs to help pour the 150 pound molds, cast the boxes in porcelain, fire the boxes, and polish the boxes. He needs 20 total, but by the 1st of February we needed 1 complete box.

These are some of Tom's cups.

The cone 6 porcelain slip.

Tom and Ian with pouring jigs.

Ian staring dreamily into the slip. (It's claimed that if you stare deep enough, you can see your future....)

Tom Pouring

We missed the bucket once, but luckily a lot of it fell on me as I tried to catch it.

The pieces in the kiln,

Detail (looks like a parking garage)

We built the kiln up around the cast box lids and bottoms, leaving just a few inches around the pieces and kiln furniture, and then put the top on.

Tom fired it today and everything seems to be fine. I will post an image of the boxes when they are finished.

Check out Tom's website here and cups here.

Awesome Plate

My new favorite plate.

From here.

Plates and/on Platters

Mahogany

Walnut

White Oak

Mahogany

Cherry

You can now buy these guys here: http://markwarrenstudio.com/section/210753_Shop_Buy.html

FoilSuitCostumes

Check out the full size image to get a good look at what is actually going on here. From www.shorpy.com, a really awesome hi-res historic photo archive.

Space Suits

Being at home over the holidays gives me a certain amount of free time.

How do I choose to best use that time? Clearly, looking at NASA space suits is the best way.

Check out this great slideshow from the New York Times Website: A Space Wardrobe

My New Hero: Cyprien Côté

Radio used to pick up whale's songs from around the world, Chant de Baleines

"In 1968 Côté took a trip to Italy that would change his life forever. One morning he was outside exercising when a small earthquake took place. He noticed a beetle near his feet that left his den while the earthquake was progressing. Intrigued by this Côté took the beetle back to his lab. As it turns out, this insect- the LoDuca Beetle- can sense earth tremors and always comes out to the light when he senses anything. Côté immediately took over a thousand of the Beetles back to Quebec and designed his earthquake warning system, INSECTES TREMOLOITANTS. The device was simple- one dark room, one light room, one tunnel. If someone would ever see the beetle, they would know that an earthquake would be on the way. Insectes Tremoloitants has saved over 800 lives and counting."-Matt Brown, Design Fancy (It's a great article, read it!)

Hairy Cups (?)

Some new pieces using old fur (and faux fur) for coozies on to-go cups.

Hairy cups? They smell like grandmas and cigarettes.

Stirring in the aether... A transmission...

....What's going on here?

Dream Excursion Module

I found this here.

Between furniture and micro-architecture...

Winter Madness

Daniel's birthday wings...

In a new slip-cast bowl, fresh from the kiln

And then one day this guy just showed up...

Fun!

I found this fellow here: http://seaquence.org/
you create an organic petri dish, with basic parameters such as wave shape and volume.
Its worth a try/ listen.

First Round of Casts

This is what is at the bottom of a bucket of slip that has sat for months. It looks so weird.