Woo Anima

This is a fun little thing I did in flash using a drawing from my notebook.

Making Tile Cutters

 Heres my way of making tile cutters, not the only way for sure but it works. I use tin sheet which you can get at any hobby shop. Its really bendable and you can solder it. I start by cutting a block of wood the size of the tile I want to make. I like to round the corners a bit with a little sand paper. This block will serve as a guide for bending the tin sheet around. It will also act as the pusher for popping the clay tile out of the cutter later on. Take the tin sheet and bend it around the wood block making sure you have a tight fit. Once in place I clamp it and solder it right on the block It's a little tight to get off but thats what you want for a good pusher. Once off, I sand the block slightly and it's much easier to get on and off. I use the glue gun to glue the block to a base, which is cool because when you cut tiles you can turn the cutter over on its base and press down on the tin sheet and the tiles will pop out with little effort.  A rim soldered around the cutter helps to push down when cutting. I use a little weld putty on the corners to make it a little easier on the hands. Love to see how you do it . Drop me a line. Chris

Game Tiles

I've been silkscreening graphics onto these little round ceramic tile shapes and the kids started playing with them and making up games. I wanted to see what they would do with more designs. Not having a lot of designs screened at the time I printed out more and used a round hole paper cutter and glued them on the bisque tiles. They held up pretty well considering the abuse they get.

Mission San Fernando Field Trip

Tommy, my nine year old, gets to do a project on one of the missions that dot the coastline here in California. Lucky for us the one he choose was close enough go see in person. Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana. Cool place I would recommend stopping by if you get the chance. We saw one other person the whole time we were there.

Ceramic Tile Logo

     I was trying different logo ideas out on the back of the tiles and even had a rubber stamp made of one. But I ended up changing my mind on the design and the rubber stamp didn't give a really bold impression in the clay. This little Dremel tool worked pretty good and gave me the hand made look I wanted. I used a copier printout with a little acetone on the back to transfer the drawing to the piece of wood. I could have just used clay and pressed it into the finished design and fired it but that would have taken too long. I ended up using some plumbers epoxy, it sets up really quick and is hard as a rock.

Ceramic Decals on Various Clay Bodies

These are small test tiles of Stoneware clay bodies (Mid Range Cone 5) from Laguna. The decals held up pretty good , but on some, due to the glaze more than the clay, the decal started to pull back.

Ceramic Decal on Shocking Red Colored Bowl

The beauty of the 99 cent stores here in LA. is you can pick up ceramic pieces and re-fire them and not be too heart broken if it fails to work. Heres a little bowl that I picked up and tried a decal on. Rather shocking color combo, wouldn't you say?