lisa clague

This past week my colleague, Andréa Keys Connell arranged to have visiting artist and ceramicist, Lisa Clague visit the ceramics area. I snuck out of class and took my metals students over to see Lisa's demonstration. It was awesome to hear about how Lisa uses steel in her work to allow her to do some of the things she does in her sculptures. Her use of slabs to build the figurative work was really great and I was totally inthralled by how she does the fabric folds. It's so rewarding to see someone work, who really knows their material and who has figured out so many amazing things about process.

In addition, I am so happy that I have a colleague like Andréa. She is a top notch human being. She is so compassionate and such a good teacher.

noah's ceramic studio

Andrea loaned Noah a wheel so he could set up a studio at home. She had it sitting outside her garage and she mainly does hand-building so she said he could borrow it.  He's been loving his ceramic class in high school and he has been spending a lot of time throwing, so he was thrilled to get the opportunity. It is so great to have friends like Andrea and Matt. Andrea reminds me of my friend Adream, as Andrea is just as compassionate and caring as my friend Adream was. I'm so thankful that Matt and Andrea came to Boone to live. I feel like I've known them both for a lifetime. It's not common for things to be that way.

We brought the wheel home and cleaned it up a bit and then Noah and I got to work moving things around in the basement. We cleared a space in the furnace room and he set-0up some shelves that we were storing paint on so he can put finished pieces there. He's been throwing a lot and even showing the girls. Maya has taken to it pretty quickly as well. I'm so glad that they all appreciate the act of working with materials and making things. I hope this gift and appreciation never slips away from them as they become adults. 

I made Noah a proper wedging table a few days later (not shown here). I have yet to install some more shelves for him and install a sheet or two of drywall to fully inclose the space. Once we get that done, he'll just need a kiln. I can't wait to see what all he makes.

 

3D printing in clay: metal extruder parts

  

Taek and I have been talking about an all metal extruder chamber and auger for his 3D printer that he prints clay with. Before Christmas I offered to cast the auger in metal as he's been having trouble with the clay destroying the printed part. I cast the auger in bronze for him and while I was at it, I offered to cast the outer extruder in aluminum. The extruder body is pushing the limits of the flask size that we have so I told him that there was no guarantee that we would get a good pour. The bronze auger came out great. We ended up with porosity in the tip of the aluminum extruder body but I was able to tig weld the the extruder so Taek could run some tests. The bronze auger worked really well according to Taek. After further discussion, Taek is looking into the use of a drill bit for the auger and using an anti backlash coupler to mate the Nema 17. I told him we should just machine the extruder body for ease of repeatability as well as testing different metal sleeves for running against the auger. I have some measurements and should be able to bang one of these out for him on my lathe in the coming weeks. In the mean time, he's working on a 6ft tall printer. It should be impressive!