Nesting Cats, Done

cat family

Somewhat to my surprise, I got the stacking cats done before Christmas. And, on the bright side, most of them can stack inside one another, more or less.

bowl of cats (drying after their post-grinding bath)

After the bisque firing I was very disappointed in the cats. I had tested all of them for fit before leaving them to dry, but somehow, most of them warped during drying or firing. While they all can close just fine, most of them didn't fit inside one another as well as they did before firing. 

cats and interiors

I was able to use a Dremel to sand down most of the cats to fit better, but the biggest one is way, way off. I'm confused, because I checked the fit on all of them and I remember the big one fitting really well. I suspect that I was tired and either used wetter clay for the big one (so it shrunk more than it's fellows as they all dried) or I simply measured with the wrong interior cat. Darn!

snow cat

After I ground the cats down a bit, they fit okay, but need some careful handling to go together. The ears are probably the biggest problem with fit, but the cats are snug on their bellies, too. Though I made these for a 4 year old, they aren't really the best design for a 4 year old, since they are hard to put together. Hopefully the 4 year old will be patient with his aunt's attempt.

moon cat

I applied underglaze colors for the cats. The color of the outside of the cats matches, more or less, the color of the cats in the Kevin Henkes book. I had intended to highlight the whiskers, eyes and mouths, but simply ran out of time and energy.

rain cat

I also used his book illustrations for inspiration for the interiors of the cats. The smallest cat that opens has a dark interior with a white circle for the moon. The next smallest cat has rain inside, though the colors don't quite match the book. The next largest cat has snow, more or less, and the largest cat, the one that is too small, has butterflies inside. I recommend reading the book, if you'd like to know why I chose these interiors. 

butterfly cat with whiskers and eyes done by my daughter

If you'd like your own set of stacking cats, you'll have to look elsewhere because I won't be doing this again (unless my nephew asks me to).

Twisting Gear Form

I threw some clay parts the other day based on sketches I had done earlier in the year. The pieces are relatively simple stacks of gears, similar to a piece I built last year with gear parts.

I drew some of the sketches right side up, then changed the orientation of the others

Last year I was focused on getting the parts to fit together and incorporating enough bike parts. This year I am more able to focus on the form because I am more comfortable with the additions. (I feel like I should knock on wood about that last statement, since I haven't actually put the pieces together yet.)

last years gear stack

Incidentally, last year's piece, "Cyclical Adaptations", will be in the Central Washington Artists Exhibition at Larson Gallery next month. The CWAE opens November 2 with a reception from 3 to 5pm (though I'll be on my way to see my new nephew).

thrown parts for three forms

This year I threw enough pieces to build three of the four pieces in the sketches. The thrown pieces are mostly flexible tubes and bulbs. I measured the top and bottom openings of each piece based on the size of the gears I plan to use for the eventual sculptures.

gears and internal supports for stacked pieces

The size of the thrown pieces was about right, but I altered the angles of the pieces and their ends to create more movement in the pieces. First I roughed in the new shape, then I needed to add inserts to help connect the pieces after firing.

starting to alter the form of the sculpture

Unfortunately for blogging and picture taking, I can't balance the finished pieces of a twisting form without risking the whole thing collapsing, so after double checking opening measurements and finishing the surfaces, I had to let the pieces dry separately.

finished pieces drying

The finished piece should look similar to the form I originally drew, though the surface is different. I am still working on the other two pieces for which I threw parts.

Fitting a new batch of fired work

I fired some more pieces this weekend, including the first base for a pitcher plant piece. The bike fork fits well into and onto the base. The short leg of the fork is damaged (thus it is short) and I may alter the base because of the metal is bent, but the changes aren't absolutely necessary.

bike fork in place (temporarily) on base

Unfortunately, the other area of the base, where I planned to anchor a bike part, appears to have warped or may have been measured incorrectly. I tested the fired fit with a different gear stack than the one I used originally, but I believe the interiors of this type of gear stack are all the same. The original gear stack is hiding in my messy studio somewhere.

gear held in place on wet clay

I can't tell from the wet clay pictures if I am holding the gear in place because it doesn't fit or because it is too heavy for the wet clay. The wet clay should shrink during drying and firing, allowing for about 10% reduction in the size of the piece after firing. A piece that almost fits wet should shrink to fit after firing, though I can't tell if that happened here.

different gear held in place on fired clay (because it won't fit)

The clay attachment is no longer perfectly round, an error I seem to be encountering with some regularity. The piece may have warped during drying or firing--or, again, I might have not accounted for shrinkage very well. Regardless, I should plan for less shrinkage on small elements like this in the future.

the broken bike fork pictured here illustrates my intent, even if I don't plan to use this particular part

I can proceed with the result of this particular error in several ways. If I absolutely want to maintain the original design, I could grind down the exterior of the clay attachment or the interior of the bike part to make up for the small size discrepancy. Or, I could put something inside the attachment which also goes inside the gear. This places the gear farther from the base itself, but still attached in a similar way to the original plan.

broken bike fork holding up the gear that wouldn't fit on its own

Another option is to revise the design, replacing the intended gear with a different, wider gear and a clay end cap. Or I could replace the gears with some other element all together. 

large end cap holding on larger gear

I could attach an old faucet handle

Of course, I don't have to make all these decisions quite yet. My plan is to build the bulk of the work early in my sabbatical, then glaze everything at once, and then put everything together after glazing. If I attach all the bike parts after all the clay parts have been made, I can trade some of the pieces between one sculpture and another. Though this approach is foreign to a pottery, it seems the most reasonable approach for this group of works. I expect to collect some more bike parts before the project is complete. I expect that I will get more of what I already have (more gears, more chains, more of certain small parts), which means I will be able to choose between similar parts later on and may find a slightly larger gear set or a slightly different fit.
 

one of the second batches of pitcher plants, testing fit on the bike fork