It's Thursday, and it's getting tiring, making molds during the day and casting in the evening. Looking forward to the weekend! Once you start making molds, you have to keep going until all of the pieces are made, because once the plaster dries out you can't add new wet pieces very easily. However, it needs to be done, because new molds make new horses, and some of these are long overdue. The highlight of today will be finishing the rubber mold on the Dodo.

We have a good rubber Dodo. One bubble in his wing, which can be fixed. Now to make a plaster mold on him! Well, three molds... A two part head and neck; a three part body (pouring through the neck) and a four part base/ leg mold. Fun!

 So tired last night, this is how the work table looked this morning. Now it's clean, and I am pondering Disembodied Dodo Legs. Where to start on them?

This is what I had in my head, but the reality leaves me doubtful. The legs are too firmly encased, they will not demold intact this way. So this piece will be further pared down, and at least two more pieces required, if not three. Time to stop and ponder.

t's a hot, humid Monday and the thrill of a new mold is the only thing keeping me going. We have achieved 2/3 of a Dodo. No legs yet, the mold isn't done, but the rest works great! He'll sit in a wet box for a week, waiting for his legs.

Working late again. The legs don't get attached until the seam cleaning is done.

One of the biggest rewards in moldmaking is being able to reproduce a piece of art, faithfully. Cutting up the master, so that you can reassemble it in another medium, multiple times. It's always interesting to see the 'birth' of the first casting.

I'll be making and selling them, yes, they won't be inexpensive though. The coloring will take some time.

  Oozlefinch is a historical figure, a mascot for the Air Defense Artillery.   The originals (here, from San Francisco) were plaster. Goofy, aren't they?

 I sculpted this one, I  think I got pretty close!

This is Oozlefinch Version II- I changed the eyes and feet to closer approximate the original. The outer toe on each side is shorter than the inner toe. I also deliberately tilted his head but that can be changed with each casting. This one captures the arch in the foot more accurately, and the eyes are also more correct to the original.

I won't be making the production on these, just the molds. But these ceramic castings are to get a good master for those molds. They  will be sold as a fundraiser for a San Diego historical site, Fort Rosecrans.

Collectors dream of finding important, unknown pieces at Estate Sales, it's the thrill of the hunt combined with the ache of *wanting it*. My friend Teresa Rogers clued me in on a sale in our area, warning me that there was a possibly important piece there by the sculptor Maureen Love, whose work we collect. I was involved in writing two early books about Maureen and her work. So, recruiting Craig, we all were in the driveway of this sale at 5 am, trying to beat the dealers. We found not one but TWO pieces that Maureen cast and glazed herself. Karma was very good to us. This is a MAJOR find. This is as close to the artist's work as you can get.

Mine was glued in a glass case...so I bought the entire case. We were afraid to bring her home glued into the case, the fabric was loose and the door was broken, so Craig went to the store and bought us scissors so that we could cut her off the fabric, sitting in Jack in the Box. It was freakin' weird.

I'm going to send her to Kristina Lucas Francis to restore and document, she has been doing the most excellent research on Hagen-Renakers, as well as fantastic restoration work. The horse deserves top notch restoration, and Kristina is among the very best.

The production piece is on the left, the original sculpt on the right. There is something very immediate and gestural, expressive, something more emotive about these original sculpts.

For more about this piece, please read Theresa Roger's excellent blog post.