Condo: The View

I inspected my Condo on Wednesday. All went well. There were a few problems but that's to be expected. The closet doors in the bedroom were missing, the air vent above the stove wasn't fully boxed in and a few other minor things like scuffs on the wall.

The one thing that might be a bigger issue is a cable and a phone outlet were missing. I had ordered one for each section of wall. That way I wouldn't have to span a door ways to setup a TV anywhere I wanted. Unfortunately the cable outlet that's missing is right where I wanted to put my computers. The phone is less serious, mostly because I'm using the cell phone, but it's still a future consideration.

Fortunately there is a blank switch plate where the missing cable outlet should be. My hope is they just ran out of cable plates and put a blank one on temporarily.

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures, and most of the ones I did take are pretty dull, nothing but empty rooms. And of coarse I forgot to take a picture of the kitchen, the one room that looks like something. However I did get a shot of the view.

Sculpture: Tile, Bisque Fired

(March 2006)
Today was the start of the Spring Session of the sculpture class and I got the Tile Sculpture back. Much to my relief it did not explode the kiln. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

It's gone though the first stage of firing, called bisque firing. The next stage is called high firing. I'm assuming it called high firing because they take it to a higher temperature.

One thing you can do when high firing is add oxides to change the colour of the piece. A straight high firing will make this particular clay come out a gray stone colour. It also tends to pick up a reddish, orangish, brown tone from iron oxides in the clay and from surrounding pieces. However this effect tends to only happen to the most open areas of the sculpture.

So to even out this effect I added an oxide called rutile. Don't know exactly what it is, but it will give the piece a light reddish, orangish, brown tone. Or at least that's the plan. You never know what's really going to happen in a kiln.

The pictures show the raw bisque fired piece, in white, and with the rutile applied. The final picture is of the piece in the kiln. This is the smaller high fire kiln. It's big enough to sit in when it's empty. The bisque fire kiln is in the same room. That one is large enough you can walk into it.

Sculpture: Tile

(March 2006)
I thought I'd post a new one for a change. This sculpture is different from the rest in that it was sculpted in a firing clay. This means to get the final piece it just needs to be kiln fired, instead of the long involved casting process with the other pieces I've done.

I sculpting it during the last class of the Winter session. It went off the drying room where it will be taken to the kiln for firing. So I eagerly await the start of the Spring session so I can see how it turns out.

There is a multi-step firing process involved. The first firing I believe is called a bisk firing. After this firing the piece will come back very white in colour. It can be left in this state, or it can be high fired. High firing will give the piece a more stone like look. More earthy yellow in tone. It will also pick up deposits of iron which cast an interesting shadow over the piece. The iron comes from the kiln it's self. The temperature is high enough that small amounts of it vapourise and then condense in on the piece.

Another thing you can do before the high firing is add surface finishes. I'm not sure what all the options are, but I've seen some of thenm, and you can get some interesting effects.

So an obvious question is, why don't we use a firing clay all the time? Well there are several reasons I can think of. The clay is a lot more expensive to work with and it more difficult to work with. It costs more to get, and it's harder to maintain. It must be kept clean of contaminants or it could explode during firing. It's also harder to work with. The grain of the clay is much larger, so it's harder to get detail into it. It dries faster, and doesn't soften up again easily. Finally you need to be very careful how put it together. Creating an air pocket in the clay could cause the piece to explode when fired.

Plus there's the poetry class, which makes full use of the kiln so there's rarely an opportunity for additional works to get fired. So it was a bit of a privilege to get to work with this clay and I fully enjoyed it.

The moment of truth will come in the next few weeks. Did I make any mistakes creating it that might cause it to come apart or even explode in the kiln. I worked with it a lot longer then I should have and it was getting pretty dry by the end. It's hard to add new clay when the old clay is almost dry. So it could turn out that these pictures are all I have of 6 classes worth of work.

Unlike all my other pieces that I've just decided to squish back into the bin rather then cast, the decision is not mine whether it survives. It could return to class this week and be given a hand full of rubble.

Sculpture: Roboman

(May 2004)
This is about the mid point of the all male model trend. I believe I had just completed work on casting Man 2. This was the last three week pose of the school year. As I recall I didn't have much creative energy left. Sometime this leads to trying different things. This is a good example of that happening.

Because the school year was coming to an end there was no way to preserve this piece. Well not easily at anyway. So knowing it's just going to get squished gives you a little more freedom to just play with it. It also gives you little incentive to put effort into it. So the combination of those two factors resulted in this part robot man.

Had I had more time or interest in it I probably would have taken it to the half and half stage. I think it's an interesting idea. I might try it again sometime. I've like the cyborg / humanoid robot concept. It might be fun to carry that through to a completed piece.

Sculpture: Quick Reclining

(January 2004)

Don't remember much about this one. I know I did it in one class, 3 hours. Compared to work I've done in the past, getting this far would have taken 3 classes. I'm still not very fast compared to some others I've seen though.

Condo: Almost Ready

My new condo is almost ready. I take possession April 7. Here are a few pictures of the building from about month ago. The only visible difference from today is they've taken the construction elevators off the building.

The close up picture at the bottom is my actual balcony and bedroom window.

Work: Jeff's Last Day

Jeff is a friend and coworker. We've worked together on projects on and off over the last 7 years I've been at the company, he's been there for 10.

Tomorrow is his last day. For most people I'm very sad when they leave. I know there is a good chance I may never see them again, or at least very rarely. Jeff has decided to go to China to learn mandarin. So while I don't expect I'll never see him again, it's not like he's going to be around.

Jeff hasn't enjoyed working at the company since the day I met him, my first day in the office. I think one of the first things he said was "I've got to get out of here." While I don't expect this is entirely true, it is mostly true. He is a very loyal and responsible person. He very carefully timed his departure to be at the end of a project cycle.

The difference with Jeff's departure over other people's departures is I'm very happy. When other people have left, they've basically gone to do the same job somewhere else. Jeff has not only quit a job he hasn't enjoyed, he's decided to pursue something he's talked about doing for a few years now.

It's an odd felling for me. I'm glad to see him go. And this feeling of happiness at his departure has overridden any feelings that I'll miss him.

All the best in China Jeff. I suspect I will miss you at some point, but right now I'm just glad to see you go.