March 5th, 2024: Worked all day on updating my website. I may be pretty OK at painting and drawing, but web design is not my forte, which is why it took all day, even with Squarespace’s “simplified” web design tools. Precisely because I’m not all that good at it, I’ll avoid it entirely and drink wine instead this evening… Started this blog to talk about my art. Since I haven’t yet figured out how to build a blog in Squarespace that will keep the most recent entries at the top, you’ll have to scroll down to read the latest… If you know the secret, please use the “contact” page and send me instructions!

March 7th, 2024: Went to the opening reception for ‘residents’ of the Archie Bray for work completed during their residencies and met many of the artists (see pic). For anyone not acquainted with the Bray, it’s one of the world’s most highly regarded ceramic arts institutions. Definitely worth a visit to see their work, which will be on display for the next several weeks. Amazing stuff.

March 10th, 2024: I’ve been asked why I haven’t posted much in the way of new art for a while… I’ve been working on a bookcase in the basement instead. It will hold all the books and ‘stuff’ currently clogging up the unfinished basement room which will become my studio… which is the next project. The pic below should explain why the bookshelf took so long. It’s complete enough at this point to start loading it up, but it still needs face frames and cupboard doors on the bottom part.

March 23rd, 2024: I’ve been working on a “pedicure throne”… it’s basically just a platform for the pedicure chair to sit on, so that the nail technician doesn’t have to bend over so far to do the pedicure. It’s for Rockstar Nailz here in Helena. I’m thinking leopard wallpaper covered with epoxy glaze for the two sides that will show as it sits in the corner… what do you think?

April 5th, 2024: Been thinking that as the “staff artist” for the Fat Happy Dragon Co. (FHDC), maybe I should try adding wings to the logo… I printed out the logo and added small wings (this fat happy dragon weighs too much to ever fly with such small wings, but nevermind)… asked the FHDC CEO (my wife) what she thought, and she definitely favors wings. I think overall I agree, and even with the wings I think it still avoids the “Game of Thrones” look (a plus in my book). Check out with / without below, and send me a message: what do you think?

April 9th, 2024: I’ve had a partially sketched-out drawing taped to one of my drawing boards for around three or four years now… started as a Fat Happy Dragon Co. (FHDC) Christmas card, but I just couldn’t decide what to do with it. Finally picked it up and decided to finish… here’s what it looked like when I last abandoned it. I’ll post progress in a couple of days, and then I’ll post the finished drawing to the FHDC page on this website…

4/11/2024: Below: Went to a veteran’s “recreational therapy” workshop at Omerta Arts here in Helena today. We worked with clay sculpture, which Omerta threatened to actually fire and thereby preserve for posterity. I tried to create a wave, a la The Great Wave off Kanagawa (a woodblock print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, from 1831)… my wave attempt was somewhat less than successful, so I decided that there was no harm to be done by adding a little humor - a very alarmed little guy in a clay boat.

4/12/2024: Below: Here’s that toy store sketch (see my March 9th entry above) as it appeared this morning… shooting for completion today!

Success! of sorts… the finished pic is now posted on the Fat Happy Dragon Co. (FHDC) page of this website (take a look!). Peeled it off the drawing board, and had to use a little naptha along with some sanding to remove the masking tape residue. That’s how long this sucker has been waiting for me to finish it. Yeesh.

Next up: a suggestion by the FHDC CEO (my wife, Tina) — a “book dragon”.

14 April 2024: Nearly finished Tina’s ‘Pedicure Throne’ today. The idea is that the client sits on a chair placed on the platform, so that Tina will save her back because she doesn’t have to bend over so far while doing a pedicure… Of course it’s got leopard side panels! A little paint on the exposed plywood, a set of stairs, and it’ll be good to go.

16 April 2024: my studio has finally risen to the top of the ‘must do’ priority list… first task: learn the basics of “Sketch-Up” so that I can submit a reasonably professional-looking plan for the building permit! Once the studio is done, trust me, I’ll be painting my *** off!

24 April 2024: Still learning “Sketch-Up”, but other tasks keep coming up… today’s: pruning the fruit trees in our back yard. Meanwhile, I’m thinking about how I can use up all my left-over acrylic paint by doing a series of Yellowstone views…

10 May 2024: I’ve got some catching up to do on this blog… but first and foremost: Helena (Montana) ArtWalk is today, from 4-8pm. Thanks to the good people at Omerta Arts for taking up sponsorship when the downtown business group decided to drop it. It’s important for several reasons: it gives exposure and the potential of sales to area artists; it emphasizes the importance of the arts as part of Montana culture, community and economy to our citizens; and also importantly, the participating downtown merchants report that they have a significant jump in sales numbers both the day of, and for several days after, the ArtWalk. With that, back to the blog…the next few entries will be dated when they occurred instead of when I got around to posting them (i.e., today)…

25 April 2024: Another session of Veterans’ Recreational Therapy at Omerta Arts. I worked on a distorted head and a larger ‘wave’ sculture. As you can tell by this and my mahogany piece “awash” on my three dimensions page, I have a thing about waves… and yes, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Japanese artist Hokusai is an influence. Interestingly, the biggest waves I’ve seen -personally- were on Lake Superior, not the Atlantic or Pacific…

In order to keep the weight of the wet clay from collapsing the ‘wave’ on itself, I had to put a couple of pieces in place to hold it up, as shown below. These were carved out later, once the clay was dry enough to stand up on its own. Although I’ve worked with pottery before, I hadn’t done clay sculpture to speak of, so it’s been a learning process… one thing I’ve learned: you have to hollow out your pieces, or when they go into the kiln they will trap steam inside and explode apart. Since pieces by several artists all go into the kiln together, “that would be bad”.

The distorted head below:

3 May 2024: Came up with a use for a bunch of cool-looking small pieces which were cut from the adjustable shelves for my bookcase (pic of bookcase above)… (below): A quick couple of lines on paper to guide me, a bit of wood glue, and voila, a small sculpture. I decided that once it was done, it should get an epoxy glaze coat. The finished piece is on my three dimensions page.

7 May 2024: Started a new drawing (below) for my “the Fat Happy Dragon Co.” (FHDC) series… at the suggestion of the FHDC CEO, my wife, it’s a ‘book dragon’. The dragon is sitting on top of its horde of treasure… it will be very dark, with illumination from the entrance and from the candles above the dragon. Got this far before it was time for a major decision: do I use cross-hatching and stippling to create the dark interior of the cave, or do I go with ink wash, or both?… (as of 10 May, this remains undecided).

When the CEO tells the Staff Illustrator (me) to make a ‘book dragon’, well, the Staff Illustrator had best get busy! :) … so I’d better decide soon how to finish this piece!

19 May 2024: Finally decided to use an ink wash to create the “cave” for the book dragon (below). The wash lacked some definition, so I’ll probably go back over it with pen and ink. But hey, it’s a start…. the gold “egg crate” is from a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates; it makes a great ink well for mixing up various strengths of wash. Also, their larger plastic containers are great as paint palettes… and, in order to use them, well… somebody’s got to empty them out - Chocolate!

20 May 2024: Added some pen and ink over the ink wash for the ‘book dragon’. The CEO approves. Gave the dragon blue eyes - because in my dragon world, dragons have blue eyes. None of this glowing yellow cat eye stuff from GoT… final product is posted to the Fat Happy Dragon Co. page on this website.

I have a bunch of acrylic paint left over from classes at Helena College… their painting classes don’t use oils (too many students sensitive to fumes, insurance cost due to flammability) or watercolor (too difficult to really achieve good results in a single term). Even though acrylics are my least favorite painting medium, it seems like it would be a shame to waste all that paint… so I’m working on a new series, mostly scenes of geysers and hot springs from Yellowstone National Park, that I’ll crank on all week.

Still trying to master Sketch-Up enough to make a decent plan to submit for a building permit for the studio… and there’s the budget issue…so I’ve taken over Tina’s dining room table for as long as she will let me. Wish me luck!

20 June 2024: (Below) Working with acrylics, I’ve been painting large areas of color, which I refer to as ‘blocking out’ areas… since many acrylics - especially the student acrylics I’m working with - do not have the opacity of oils, I have to think well ahead in order to have the painting work. This is where I’ve begun blocking out a painting of a small spring just NE of Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Once I get the finished piece up under my “landscapes” tab, you’ll be able to see how this developed…

This (below) is how I began a painting of Silex Spring… the white areas below the sky will become pine trees. The central area will be the deep spring, painted in shades of turquoise and blue. Again, once it’s up on the “landscapes” page, you’ll be able to see how it developed…

And this one (below) is how I blocked out colors for a painting of Old Faithful geyser. Acrylic white is very opaque, so I will be able to paint the erupting geyser itself directly over the blue sky. On the other hand, the colors I will mix into shades of brown for the bison are semi-transparent - so I have to leave a white space for that part of the painting.

June 27th: Worked on a ceramic sculpture (below) of a fat happy dragon at Omerta Arts today. This dragon will be drinking coffee… a “Coffee Dragon”! While the clay is still soft, I’ve had to add some support under each arm. That will be removed once the clay dries enough. Next time I’m at Omerta, the solid rib down its spine will be cut into triangular shapes… I’ll also add claws, the thermos and coffee cup, and some cute little wings.

11 July 2024: Our VA Arts group meets Thursdays. Since Omerta Arts was closed for Thursday the 4th, I didn’t get back to the dragon until today. As you can see, though, I’m making progress (adding claws and coffee thermos/cups immediately below, got the wings on in the pic below that). Again, there are supports holding up the wings and the arms until it dries out enough for those parts to hold themselves up.

Once the “Coffee Dragon” is solid enough, I’ll have several steps to go: cut it apart and hollow out the pieces so that no part of it is too thick… if it’s too thick, the clay may not dry completely. The risk is that when it is fired in the kiln, the remaining moisture will turn to steam and ‘explode’ the dragon. Once they’re hollowed out enough, the pieces will need to be put back together using “slip” (very watery clay, which acts like glue). Then I’ll need to re-texture to hide the seams from cutting it apart. Once all that is done, it will dry until ready to fire… and then paint with glaze… and then re-fire to “vitrify” the glaze (i.e., make the glaze into a thin glass-like coating). Ceramics are unique in that you never quite know exactly how it’s going to work until it comes out of the kiln. Wish me luck!

19 July 2024: The issue of the Montana Arts Council’s (MAC) quarterly newspaper, “State of the Arts”, has an article congratulating four artists who have certified under the “Montana Artrepreneur Program” (MAP). Congratulations are in order to Sunday Dutro, Cheri Dyk, Meghan Hanson and Afton Ray-Rossol (article immediately below).

I took the MAP course with those four, along with eight others (additional articles below). MAP is a terrific program, one I highly encourage anyone who is trying to make - or even just augment - a living in any of the creative arts to attend. Certification occurs once every spring (deadline May 1st), and since I was too busy at that point to complete the required “toolbox” for certification, I’m shooting for completion by May 1st 2025.

More Montanans make their living in the Arts than in mining, wood products, gas extraction, building materials trade, quarrying… and on. The Arts and Culture sector contributes $2,200,000,000.00 annually to Montana’s economy. The MAC recognized this years ago, and Dr. E. L. “Cindy” Kittredge and the MAC developed the MAP to help professionalize people working in the creative arts. Again, if you are working in the arts, SIGN UP! You can find additional info at art.mt.gov/map (or by reading the articles I’ve posted below - click on them to make them full-screen).

22 July 2024: I’ve started working on a set of pen-and-ink drawings for an exhibit in September at Queen City Framing & Art Supplies. First up: the Montana State Capitol building Ibelow)… This first drawing presented a couple of challenges. I’m using Micron pens, because my preferred Koh-i-Noor 3080F ink for my technical pens has been ordered, but isn’t here yet… I do my more detailed pen-and-inks on Arches watercolor blocks, which make a handy drawing pad when sketching the scene in pencil (for finished works, I almost always start with pencil, ink over the sketch, and then erase the pencil). Micron pens are essentially felt-tip technical pens, where traditional technical pens are steel tube tipped. Quite a difference, which I’ve had to get used to. On top of that, I started this one on Arches “rough” paper, which I’ll never do again - a real pain getting sharp lines due to the rough surface. Back in the mid-1980s, when I last did a lot of this type of work, I was using Arches “cold press”, which worked great - the roughness would allow me to ‘skip’ the pen over the surface when I wanted to create lighter values, while still easily making sharp dark lines when desired. I was thinking that I could do the same with “rough”… I thought wrong. I’ve started the next drawing on Arches “hot press”, which has a nearly smooth surface. Between the three, I think I like the “cold press” best… and I definitely prefer the steel tips of traditional technical pens. My favorites are Rotring Isograph and Staedtler Mars 700… although Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pens aren’t bad either.

7/25/2024: My ink is here! and I’m back to using my preferred technical pens. (below) Started a pen-and-ink of the Helena Firetower (the symbol of Helena, Montana). I’ve had to refer to photos I took while I scoped out this scene very frequently, as the sketch did not capture some of the more complicated aspects of the fire tower’s construction. This drawing is on Arches “hot press”, which is a smooth-surface watercolor paper.

8/19/2024: I’m happy to say that two of my works received ‘first place’ in their respective categories in the Montana Veterans’ Creative Arts Festival: a watercolor of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, and a pen-and-ink with ink wash of Saint Helena Cathedral. These will move on to the national competition. I drew the pen-and-ink for my upcoming September exhibit at Queen City Framing & Art Supplies, but the timing of the Montana and National competitions allows me to enter it and still have it on hand for the September show… Here are both pieces with their ribbons sitting on our couch below our Kyrgyz clock…BTW, a shameless plug for Queen City: they carry a lot of great art supplies, can order anything, and the staff really knows their stuff and can make recommendations on what to use and how best to use it.

8/20/2024: I often use “resist” both in my pen-and-inks and my watercolors (resist also goes by ‘masking fluid’, or brand names like ‘Miskit’, ‘Friskit’, etc.) The resist acts like paint-on masking tape - just like using masking tape when painting a room - and so when you remove it, whatever was underneath shows (in my case, the white of the paper). For this picture of Helena’s “Pioneer Cabin”, I used resist to create tree branches against the dark lines of the log cabin. Here it is (below) after I inked the end of the cabin:

And here it is (below) after I removed the “resist”, leaving white branches. I will ink in more dark tree branches over the white, to give the illusion of depth…

8/22/2024: The “Coffee Dragon” has been fired once ( which makes it bisqueware in ceramics-speak ), which makes it ready for glazing. Here it is (below) with underglaze applied. It will get a clear glaze over the colored underglaze, and then undergo a final firing. In ceramics world, you never know quite what you’re going to get until it comes out of the kiln the final time. Many glazes will change color completely when fired. Sometimes you get nothing - it ‘explodes’ into shards in the kiln… sometimes you get effects that are way neater than you expected. Final firing of this piece should happen the first week of September. Wish me luck!

8/31/2024: Dropped off the pen-and-inks for my September show at Queen City Framing and Art Supplies today (whew! glad that’s done). Given the type of work (large detailed pen-and-inks), I’m making waaay less than minimum as an hourly wage… Since this is my first ‘solo’ exhibit in Helena, and I’m in just the beginning stages of resurrecting my art career, I’ve set the prices very low indeed. The opening reception and Queen City’s store anniversary celebration will be on September 6th, from 5 to 7 pm (see invite below)… drop on by if you’re in Helena. I’m furnishing the wine, so it’ll definitely be above average!

Opening of the small show at Queen City Framing and Art Supplies was very successful, with good turn-out. Sold two pieces by the time it ended… the show will be up through the end of September. My thanks to the staff at Queen City for a terrific opening reception. Tina took this pic of yours truly (below), decked out in my finest Montana business casual, looking… well, a bit awkward…in front of some of the pieces.

Many thanks to the crew at Queen City Framing & Art Supplies for the spread they put on for my opening reception!

9/23/2024: Practicing in the garage (below)…. because the studio has yet to be built. It’s been about 20 years since I was last seriously playing, so there’s much work to be done. The bass is beautiful; the sounds coming out of it are… well… it could be worse. That’s all I’m admitting to…

October 1st, 2024: Appears that practicing a bit paid off - I’m accepted into the Butte, MT Symphony and will play with them for their 75th anniversary season. Some great music scheduled for this year, including Grieg’s “Piano Concerto” and “Symphonic Dances”, Vaughn William’s “The Lark Ascending”, Grofe’s “Mississippi Suite” and more…

October 2rd, 2024: I’ve turned my pen and ink drawings from the September exhibit at Queen City Framing and Art Supply into greeting cards (below)… boxes with all nine drawings, a bit of info about each, and envelopes, which will be for sale at the “Ho Ho Holter” exhibit (or you can use the contact page of this website to order a box).

October 3rd, 2024: At Omerta Arts, I’ve been working on some miniature ‘dragon’ heads… These will be glued to tapered corks to make wine bottle stoppers. Here are the first few as “greenware” - which is essentially to say, as dried clay-based mud… they’re sitting next to some coffee cups, all ready to go into the kiln.

10 October 2024: The first five ‘wine bottle stopper’ dragon heads have been fired, making them “bisque ware” (below). They are coated with “underglaze”; once the underglaze is fired, the green will be a much darker color… To the right are two more; the closer one is dry and ready to fire. The other one is still quite wet…

17 October 2024: I’ve applied a clear glaze over the top of five of the ‘dragon head wine stoppers’ (below). Before firing, the clear glaze appears white. Once fired, just like a ‘clear-coat’ on a car, the underlying color will show, but now they’ll be shiny. The other three to the right are still ‘greenware’; two ready to fire, and one that’s still wet.

10/20/2024: Great exhibit at the Holter Museum of Art. This pic (below) shows an installation piece which occupies an entire wall - really cool! Also on exhibit, works from the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists - some really great stuff. If you’re lucky enough to be in Helena, MT, go stop in and see it before the exhibit ends!

October 31st 2024: Five dragon-heads for wine stoppers back from the kiln!

November 4th, 2024: A great season-opening night for the Butte Symphony this past Saturday. The performance of Vaughan Williams’s “The Lark Ascending” was incredible. It feels good to be playing in an orchestra again after so many years… I’m just barely visible on the right, as the bassist with far less hair….

11/6/2024: Glued the corks on the dragon head wine stoppers… whaddaya think?

11/7/2024: Fat Happy Dragon Co. Christmas cards and wine stoppers available at Omerta Arts…. check it out during the Art Walk!

11/9/2024: Two more “Fat Happy Dragon Co.” wine stoppers packaged up and ready to go! $35 at Omerta Arts.

Sets of nine cards with envelopes (one of each of the Helena drawings on the pen-and-ink page of this site) on sale at $35/box at the Holter Museum of Art gift shop (or you can use the contact page to order)

11/14/2024: Two more dragon heads glazed and ready to attach to corks for wine-stoppers!

11/18/2024: Shipped out a pen and ink today. It’s going to a rural address, so I packed it fairly well to increase odds that it survives… it is a process! Here’s the first step: wrap the artwork in plastic, hopefully sealing it well enough that even if the package gets wet, the artwork does not…

Then, build a crate (glued, caulked, and screwed, edges rounded and sanded in hopes that no package-handlers will get splinters, get mad, and throw the crate 50 yards) and place high-density foam to hold the drawing in place and absorb shocks…

The artwork in the crate…

Trimming more high-density foam for the top…

Foam attached to the top…

Weatherstripping around the top prior to closure…

(below) Top screwed on, addressed, and finally ready to ship!… Overkill? maybe… but I like to give pieces the best chance of surviving shipping that I can!

15 Dec 2024: Back from Butte where I played with the symphony for their Christmas concert. The symphony plays this concert with high school kids from Butte, Helena, and Anaconda in the orchestra and chorus. Lots of cool pieces, especially liked “Ose Shalom” and the audience sing-along at the end. The Butte audience is much more relaxed and appreciative that those of some other Montana towns….

19 Dec 2024: (below) Three more ‘dragon’ heads (dragon heads? just weird critters?) back from the kiln. Aren’t they cute? Some corks, dowels, and a bit of epoxy and they’ll morph into more wine stoppers!

1/9/2025: Just realized that since New Year’s, I’ve been putting a 2024 date on all my “Art Quote of the Day” entries…. Ooops. I’ve corrected them now… seems I was literally living in the past…

1/9/2025: Started a couple of Valentine’s Day ceramic ‘Fat Happy Dragons’… thinking that I should be part of the Helena Civic Center’s pre-valentines-day sale. Here’s a dragon holding a heart (below), still in very wet clay - thus the extra supports to hold up its arms.

1/12/2025: Drew a similar ‘Fat Happy Dragon’ holding a heart (see the Fat Happy Dragon page on this site)… I think I’ll make Valentine’s Day cards out of this and a few others, and see how they go over. Stop by the Civic Center’s “FebFest” February 8th and look at all the goodies… to include my very romantic dragons!

Of course, if I’m offering Fat Happy Dragon merch at “FebFest”, an appropriate business card is a necessity… My wife is the ‘CEO’ of the Fat Happy Dragon Co.; I’m just the staff artist. We went with a two-sided card; the Co. logo on her side, and my name on the other…. which needed something other than just a repeat of the logo. So I took one of my old digital works and added…dragons! (below)

January 30th 2025: I’ve made three little ceramic valentine’s dragons (below)… now time to cover them with underglaze and a clear glaze (think somewhat like paint and clear-coat on your car) and hope for the best when they go into the kiln… this pic is of the underglaze; the colors should be deeper when they come out of the kiln.

February 6th 2025: The valentine’s dragons are out of the kiln (below), and I have to say that they look magnificent… well, except for that one with the broken toe. I’ll glue that up and hide the damage as best I can with some paint. Big tip o’ the hat to Omerta Arts Syndicate, where I made these critters. I will be selling them at “FebFest” in the Helena (MT) Civic Center — along with a lot of other Fat Happy Dragon Co. stuff, to include Valentine’s Day cards and dragon wine stoppers.

Feb 7th 2025: Final preparations for “FebFest” at the Civic Center. Had to do a test lay-out (below) on the kitchen counter to see if I could really fit everything on the 8’x2.5’ table I’m allotted. FebFest runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and although Valentine’s day themed it will have all kinds of stuff. Check out the Civic Center’s announcement and list of vendors (below the test layout pic).

Still Feb 7th, later that day…. Decided that I needed to put the Valentine’s Day dragons in my glass box - too tempting to play with, and as “objets d' art” they’re a bit fragile. One broken toe was enough. The poor little critters look just a little less happy caged up, don’t you think? But…. They still love you!

2/11/2025: Well, FebFest at the Civic Center was a success for the “Fat Happy Dragon Co.”. Our gross was good, our net was… small, but good enough. But the best part was watching all the smiles when folks walked past our booth and saw the Fat Happy Dragon cards and ceramic sculptures. Booth below:

3/5/2025: T-Shirts! Fat Happy Dragon Co. T’s are available! Since Ts are already kind of expensive these days I’ve decided not to sell them myself with my additional markup for profit (I remember getting three for $10…. yes, I’m old). Instead, you can save money and order directly from Big Sky Printwear (bigskyprintwear.com) as one of their stock designs. They’re updating their website, so you won’t be able to purchase on line for another week or two, but you can already call them and order if you can’t wait. Spread the word!

February 11th 2025 (late entry): I was recently notified by the Holter Museum of Art that I’m one of nine artists selected to create a piece based upon “David’s books” (David Spencer, a long-time volunteer at the Holter, recently passed away and left the Holter his extensive… did I say extensive? … library — some 25,000+ volumes). The Holter held a book sale in February; proceeds are split between the Holter and David’s estate. I bought an entire box-full. I’ll also be using some of the unsold books to create a “book dragon” based loosely upon the drawing that’s on the Fat Happy Dragon Co. page of this website. Thanks to the good people at the Omerta Arts Syndicate, I’m going to make a ceramic dragon that will sit atop its ‘hoard’ of books. The sculpture will be auctioned off at the Holter’s annual Gala in May. Whenever I remember to, I’ll document progress in this blog. The first step is creating a stack of books… big enough to be dramatic, but not so big that it could never sit in anyone’s home or business. I’m bolting the stack to a 1&1/2 inch thick plywood base so that it will be quite stable… which requires drilling holes through the books, hidden under the covers of the topmost layer. Cutting into pages with a hole saw to make room for large washers and nuts is… um, interesting (below). Not quite like cutting into wood…

It took a very long drill bit (below) to go through the stack of books and the plywood base. The heat from friction meant that I had to drill a couple of inches at a time and then cool the bit, for fear of starting a smoldering fire somewhere in the middle of one of the volumes… I have a feeling my wife might object if I started a fire in our garage!

February 16th, 2025 (late entry): Still working on the stack of books. I couldn’t find bolts long enough in town, so I had to use thread-rod. Since I wanted a tight fit between the rod and the pages, I used a 3/8” rod in a 3/8” hole… which proved impossible to push through. Once I realized that I could screw the thread-rod through the pages, I chucked the rod into the drill and used that to twist it all the way through the holes (below).

February 25th 2025 (late entry): This is the stack of books… almost finished (below). For the bottom layer, I cut the front cover and spine from the books and glued them directly to the plywood base… so the final step will be painting “pages” on the plywood so that they still look like complete books. Now that I have that done and know the final dimensions, I can make another plywood base to support the ceramic dragon while it’s being sculpted. If I tried to sculpt with clay on top of the books, the books would just end up as a muddy mess…

27 February 2025: After a series of interruptions (a birthday, an anniversary, taxes, playing with the Butte Symphony, and replacing part of a bathroom floor where a leaking toilet flange rotted it out), I’m back on the “Book Dragon”. It will be largely constructed using clay slabs. The x-shaped column of browner-colored clay in the center is for extra support while the sculpture dries enough to hold its shape; it’ll be mostly removed when the piece is done (below). My plywood base has two layers; one matches the top layer of the stack of books, and below that I’ve marked out the next couple of layers. Since the dragon will sit entirely upon the top two layers, it wasn’t necessary to go farther than that.

March 6th 2025: More progress on the “Book Dragon”. It now has arms, legs, and those plates down its spine (below). The lumps under arms give wet clay support until it’s dry enough to hold its shape. I’ve trimmed the “neck” where the head will attach. Have to wait for the clay to dry a bit in order to support the weight of the head…

10 March 2025: The “Book Dragon” finally has a head (below)! I had to sculpt the head out of a solid lump of clay instead of slabs. This means that I’ll have to cut it off the body once drier, hollow it out, and re-attach it. Then I’ll re-texture the joint.

Here’s a short video of the dragon, so that you can get a sense of what it looks like “3-D”.

13 March 2025: “Off with its head!” (below) I’ve removed the head of the book dragon and scraped out the support from the center (now the mound of browner-colored clay to the left). Next: hollow out the detached head, and re-attach it, and then re-texture the joint.

23 March 2025: The book dragon is basically complete, and drying in preparation for “bisque” firing. All that’s necessary now is to keep patching the cracks that happen as it dries. Every time I look at it, I’m sure it’s drying just fine… until I look closely and spot yet another crack which needs to be fixed. Don’t want it to fall apart in the kiln, after all… Can you spot this crack on the underside of its knee (below)?

26 March 2025: I’ve been patching cracks about every other day. Since the Holter needs to have the “Book Dragon” complete by 2 May, in order to publish pictures and promote their fundraiser, I’ve decided that it might be prudent to create a “backup dragon”, just in case the first one explodes in the kiln (rare, but it can happen). I’m sculpting this one as solid clay instead of assembled slabs, which means that I’ll have to cut it open and hollow it out later on. In the early stages, it just looks like a giant lump of clay, or maybe like a really weird chicken (below).

Once the arms and tail are added, it starts looking like it might, just maybe, become a dragon… although it has a long way to go. The “mohawk” will be cut into those typical triangular spinal plates - it’s a lot easier to attach a big long strip and then cut it than to try to attach every plate one at a time. The temporary support under the “hands” keeps the wet clay from drooping - although in our dry montana climate, they should be firm within a couple of days (below). By the way, the boxes labelled “Bray Clay” in the background are from the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, a world-renowned arts center here in Helena, Montana, which has its roots in the old Western Clay Manufacturing Company, an old brick factory. It’s where I buy my clay. Check it out at https://archiebray.org

27 March 2025: Made lots of progress on the “backup” dragon today. Even though the clay was still quite wet, I took a chance and cut it in half to hollow it out (the risk being that the wet clay could droop enough that it would be hard to re-assemble the pieces). Here’s the big first cut, showing how the body is being hollowed out (below). It’s important for several reasons, among them: a solid lump of clay that big would take months to dry out enough to fire; there would always be the chance that enough moisture was trapped inside to turn into steam as the kiln heated up and literally explode the piece; and hollowing it out reduces the weight by more than half.

The light scoring on the right hand piece shown above is part of the process for re-assembly: score, coat with slip (which is basically clay watered down into primordial ooze), press together, and drag the clay back and forth across the seam a bit. Below, the scribe tool is pointing to the seam where I re-joined the two halves - can you see it?

Of course, the arms, legs, and tail need to be hollowed out too. In the pic below, you can see where I had to also remove a chunk of shoulder also so that I could see if I’d dug out enough to join the hollows of the arm and the body. As you can see, somewhere in there I also began making the face, and added claws to the feet and hands. Hollowing out the pieces after the fact is very time consuming; I think I’ll stick with the slab construction method the next time…

The “mohawk” has now been cut down to its semi-final form, and all the hollowed-out pieces re-attached (below). I should be able to finish this “backup” dragon by the end of the weekend - scaley texture and all. That should give me enough time for it to dry, be bisque-fired, glazed, glaze-fired, and still make the Holter’s deadline… and if the first dragon works out fine, I’ll just have a second one to offer for sale. I have to give a shameless plug here to Omerta Arts — they’ve provided the workspace, invaluable advice, and they’re firing these in their big kiln. If you’re interested in learning more about the ceramic arts, check them out at omertaarts.org

Meanwhile, the first “Book Dragon” is drying nicely, next to the potted plant (below)… it should go into the kiln by Tuesday.