It's a Relief

As you may have guessed, the artists are complete in the carving phase and wait with bated breath for the go on the mystical installation to come! Meanwhile, some of our onlooking assistants have begun their own brick carving...kudos to you!

Laying Up Brick Murals

Mara did an installation in Charlotte,NC with a couple masons,Colley and Willie,brothers-in-law for 60 years! These 8' x 15' pieces were all the double size sculpture brick and used colored mortar......

The Whole Wall Cowcatcher

We've been back the better part of a week and somehow carving...the train is coming into view. Certainly have had a lot of stops with everybody coming to view the final stages of our working on this part of the project. Phylis and Dick Cyphers have been helping us dig our way down the tracks to the station. Made good headway today even with the distraction of setting up for our talks on making a living as working artists....

For you that haven't ever thought about it...about 1% of American artists make over $25,000./per year. That's about 6-12,000 artists in every field of endeavor. That's actors, dancers, writers, poets, graphic artists, painters, and us sculptors,of course.

KAKE TV and presentations

Today we were interviewed and filmed by KAKE channel 10 Wichita about the whole wall project.
This will be aired on Sunday, April 6th, at 10 PM on Channel 10/ Wichita(Channel 6 in Concordia).. Tune in or be tuned out. Or is it be there or be square? We hope you will tune in and see us carving on the tube.

This Friday April 4th we will both be doing presentations on our past projects for college and high school students in the cook theatre at the Cloud County Community College campus. We invite everyone and all to come join in the fun. 9:30 to 10:30 AM.
A fun day working , carving and visiting......

HOW TO INSTALL A BRICK MURAL

Brick color on the mural for The Whole Wall Project:
Cloud Ceramic's Crimson Dark Ironspot

Mortar Mix: (three bag batch)
1 Bag Design Mix 80# ( 3 bags / mix usually )
1 ½ # Davis Color Black + 1/2# Davis Color Dk. Brown #6059

1/3 bottle dry block / 3 bag batch—caution/ makes the mortar wetter
( dry block helps waterproof the mortar & retain the color /makes it easier to cut and clean).
Make sure the panel is secured / it would take months to get recarved brick back to you.
Panel is numbered from lower left corner on the top of the bed:
brick a-1/ a-2/a-3/a-4 thru a-12. Second course b-1/ b-2 / b-3….. + Roman # section ie III etc.
Lay at least the first palette out on the floor dry…. It’s important to see if all the pieces are turned the right way.
Lay the first course dry in the frame to figure the joint size needed: ¼ to 3/8 size joint is recommended.

Keep joints full of mortar….after it stiffens (about every 3 to 6 courses), cut flush with the flow of the design.
Put in wall ties every three courses.
Stand back frequently to see if everything is lined up.
When finished, brush dry.

Mason to clean panel after it sets and cures. Apply a sealer like Fabrikem to give it extra protection ( 1 Gal. /125 sq. Ft. mist on with a Hudson sprayer.

Making Tracks,Trestles,& Cowcatcher

Brick Carving Accessorizing

This is the assorted carving set that is the basis for any up and coming brick sculptor. Raiding a fine chef's kitchen or farrier's work barn is also a good place to start in accessorizing one's work bag.Pick out a pair or two of the hot new Croc shoes and you are to die for the Spring season!