the army assembles Friday, Feb 29 2008

here is a picture of the chess pieces I have poured so far

two rooks and 3 pawns short of 2 complete sets. I had lost track of which pour I was on. technically I only needed to pour the king and queen so both sides had an extra piece and 4 pawns. I tried to seperate the rook mold too early and all the pieces ripped in half. the third pawn was a cleaning mistake. so far I have only 5 of the pawns cleaned. hopefully I can get through at least the pawns this weekend. monday I start work so the rest of the cleaning will be drug out for some time, yay

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shot ok Thursday, Feb 28 2008

I shot a 259 out of a possible 300. only 5 shots I was really upset with other then that the night went great

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work…yay, 8 hour safty training…ZZZZZZ Wednesday, Feb 27 2008

I got my call today that I  passed the background check, like a good desent boy scout would have anything to worry about… that and if they don’t catch you, it can’t be held against you, lol.

and first thing Monday I go in for an eight hour OSHEA training. at least I am getting paid for this aspect. and then I start work the next day, and this time making more then I was on unemployment,  yay.

 on the ceramics note they are coming along great, only one piece gave me some trouble. I’ll see how it dries out and if it’ll need to be done again. since the slip needs to be watered down and the walls are thin they have to sit for 4-5 hours to be able remove them without distorting the shape. the big headed ones are easy to work with since they are all a uniform shape. the other set has thin necks that can be difficult to work with, especially the king, queen and knight.

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all done, yay Tuesday, Feb 26 2008

here are the pics of the steins and the other chess pieces

here are the mugs after the glazing process. if my hand was steadier the letters would have been a better

     King       Queen      Bishop      Knight         Rook        Pawn

these chess pieces look cool and they give you a big face to work with so I will try to paint these up it will take me probably a month to get to get these done along side the set I am making for my nephew. I found out a scout in my troop that recently recieved the Eagle scout award was looking for a chess set to go with a beautiful pedistal chess table his uncle made for him. if this set turns out good enough for someone else to recieve, i’ll give it to him.

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only one more day !!!!!!1 Monday, Feb 25 2008

tomorrow I can look at the steins and be happy that they are finally done. now I am doing a new side project. I am pouring a chess set for my nephew that is similar to mine. but I found an older chess set at my parents. the figures are mainly oversized heads of the pieces they represent. I will be making this set up and actually painting them in detail. i’ll probably regret it but it should be fun. It’ will take about 6 pours they way they are layed out in the mold. one mold has 3 sides to pour into for all the pieces in it

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home stretch Sunday, Feb 24 2008

Got all the steins all painted with the pink glaze. it’s interesting how the pink glaze turns crystal clear. the large and small violet pots are also glazed so the kiln can be fired up tomorrow. didn’t feel like staying up till 4am to make sure it went thru the stages and tripped out properly.

Around 10 my mom asked me to start pouring chess pieces when I am there for my nephew. apparently we are going to surprize him with a chess set. and because you want the fullset to match we make an extra of each piece and 4-5 pawns. my parents have four molds that pour one complete side.

So we are looking at 4-5 pours depending on complications and mistakes. so i could have them at least fired to the bisque stage with the base color coat baked in. I’m assuming these will be simply backwashed similar to mine. I’ll use a grey backwash on the black side to be a little more subtle and a brown backwash on the white side for a softer contrast then mine was. also to make his set unique.

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back to work Saturday, Feb 23 2008

well I got a call about temporary work with another union that has an agreement with the local sheetmetal union. after they get my background check completed I’ll be working for about 2 months at overtime wages, w00t!!. this should get me into springtime and hopefully the industry will pick up enough for a full time job in my local.

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mugs are done Friday, Feb 22 2008

I got the coffee mugs done completly

the first is mine. I decided to scratch  crack into the front and fill with black paint. the second one is my sisters with her con name on it, painted like “tigger”. followed by her husband’s mug painted with his con name. and finally is Jer’s mug. he runs the consuite at a convention we go to.

by now the kiln should be at the peak temperature for fireing the greenware. it will slowly cool down and will be ready to open and remove the bisque ceramics for glazing. then I will be able to fire the mugs by this weekend, yay

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step one completed…finally Thursday, Feb 21 2008

I have all the steins cleaned and painted. now I’ll be able to fire them tomorrow with the rest of the greenware in the basement.

                    Oxling                             Not-OX                             OX

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new camera Wednesday, Feb 20 2008

With my old camera loaned out I was checking on some sales they had this weekend. I picked up a camera package at staples. this is how cool staples is. first, the clerk was putting the camera into the bag that came in the deal. seeing it didn’t fit she grabbed a slightly larger bag that was the same price. the next thing was she checked on the 1 gb memory card and found the sale price of the 2 gb card was $4 cheaper and gave me the difference. so I got the bundle with a bigger memory for less then the sale, Sweet!!

here is a pic that I’ll be uploading as my avatar image for now.

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