McLightning95
Mustang Girl
As most of my friends have no idea what Doctor Who is, I thought I would share this with you all as I suspect some of you might appreciate this a bit more than they did. For my ceramics class we had to make a box with a lid, those where the only requirements. So what did I do? Made a TARDIS of course!
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/21/14.JPG
It even lights up (no sound effects?.yet).
I found a diagram online that broke down each of the pieces of trim into height. For example, between the base and the first panel is 93mm. So I took each measurement and reduced it by 1/7th to make my model. After the clay dried and it was fired twice (= lots of shrinking) it measures 15.25 inches from base to top of the light while the measurements for the full scale TARDIS give it to be 107.7 inches tall.
The simple ?box? part was not difficult and for the panels I cut a small block of wood to the exact size I needed and just pressed it into the clay. I did the same for the windows and, once the clay dried a bit, I cut them out with an x-acto knife. I made a small hole in the bottom so I could put in a light.
I wanted to work on it over break, so I took what I had done home. Once set up in the basement, I worked on the top/lid. The plans I found said nothing about the angles of the top, just how tall it was supposed to be. I am useless when it comes to angles and the like so it took me forever to come up with a good model.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/1.JPG
I covered it (piece by piece, joining together at the seams) with clay, let it dry and stiffen, before removing it and attaching it to a base with a lip underneath that would eventually keep it in place on top of the box.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/2.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/4.JPG
Then came the hard part of making the light, or more specifically, the top of the light. I tried just about everything (top of an egg does not work, but is kind of cute anyways) till I found an old mini Colman lantern Avon thing. The very top produced the exact dome shape I wanted. Yay! The rest was just a matter of rolling out a piece of clay, cutting some windows in it, and attaching it to the dome bit.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/8.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/10.JPG
The trim was next. I fought with it for quite a while as it was too thick or the angle on the corner was not sharp enough. Finally I got it right, rolling out thin pieces of clay, cutting one side slightly larger than the other (so it would over lap on the corner) and then scraping it to a sharp finish.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/5.JPG
Last thing to do (and most important!) was the lettering across the top. Luckily I have a print shop in my basement which means access to lots of fun toys and one of those is a Ludlow Typograph (it makes metal type to print off of ? all you really need to know). We have lots of different typefaces so it was a matter of finding the right one and the right font.
I ended up using 40pt Karnak Light for the large stuff and 30pt for the smaller bits. Some magic happens with the above mentioned Ludlow and *poof* you have type! I pressed the clay into it (after spraying it with some Zeplon to make sure it did not stick), cut out a rectangle around my letters and attached it to the TARDIS. I know it is not perfectly centered, but clay is a tricky thing to work with and you cannot be a precise as you would like (plus the size of my lettering hindered the whole center thing as well ? but I am ok with that).
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/7.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/6.JPG
It then had to dry completely (so it would not blow up in the kiln) and be taken back to school. This is when the object is at its most fragile state ? you have never seen so much bubble wrap surrounding one little thing in all your life. :lol: It arrived safely at school, and survived the first firing (thank god).
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/9.JPG
All dried out and around 17 inches tall at this point.
Good model on the left, light model in the middle, first lid model on the right.
The only blue glaze available that I thought even came close to the real TARDIS had warning stickers all over it because it has something dangerous in it that I cannot remember the name of. Anyways, you cannot eat out of whatever you glaze with it, which is fine as I was putting a light in my box and not my morning cereal. But I still got a stern talking to by one of the adjunct professors about how I know not to eat out of it ? but when I am gone, what if someone else does not know? I told her if anyone is eating out of a lamp, they have bigger things to worry about.
I glazed it (minis the letters as they would have gotten filled in with the glaze), fired it, added paper windows, the door sign, and a light and my TARDIS was complete! Glaze will run if it is applied to thickly, hence some of the ?puddles? at the base. I tried to use a dremel tool to take them off, no luck. Professor?s advice: ?Just say you meant it to do that?.
It is missing some of the fine details the real thing has, but for a first try and working with a finicky material like clay, I am pretty damn proud of it.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/21/13.JPG
Light is on in that picture.
After I had it home for a while, I thought the lettering was getting lost in the dark blue, so I painstakingly painted them white on two sides. I think I like it, but have not had the time to go back and do the other two sides, nor touch up the first two.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/21/15.JPG
The thing is a pain to photograph ? so please believe me when I said it looks better in person.
I hope you like it. If anyone wants more details on anything in here ? just ask
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/21/14.JPG
It even lights up (no sound effects?.yet).
I found a diagram online that broke down each of the pieces of trim into height. For example, between the base and the first panel is 93mm. So I took each measurement and reduced it by 1/7th to make my model. After the clay dried and it was fired twice (= lots of shrinking) it measures 15.25 inches from base to top of the light while the measurements for the full scale TARDIS give it to be 107.7 inches tall.
The simple ?box? part was not difficult and for the panels I cut a small block of wood to the exact size I needed and just pressed it into the clay. I did the same for the windows and, once the clay dried a bit, I cut them out with an x-acto knife. I made a small hole in the bottom so I could put in a light.
I wanted to work on it over break, so I took what I had done home. Once set up in the basement, I worked on the top/lid. The plans I found said nothing about the angles of the top, just how tall it was supposed to be. I am useless when it comes to angles and the like so it took me forever to come up with a good model.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/1.JPG
I covered it (piece by piece, joining together at the seams) with clay, let it dry and stiffen, before removing it and attaching it to a base with a lip underneath that would eventually keep it in place on top of the box.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/2.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/4.JPG
Then came the hard part of making the light, or more specifically, the top of the light. I tried just about everything (top of an egg does not work, but is kind of cute anyways) till I found an old mini Colman lantern Avon thing. The very top produced the exact dome shape I wanted. Yay! The rest was just a matter of rolling out a piece of clay, cutting some windows in it, and attaching it to the dome bit.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/8.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/10.JPG
The trim was next. I fought with it for quite a while as it was too thick or the angle on the corner was not sharp enough. Finally I got it right, rolling out thin pieces of clay, cutting one side slightly larger than the other (so it would over lap on the corner) and then scraping it to a sharp finish.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/5.JPG
Last thing to do (and most important!) was the lettering across the top. Luckily I have a print shop in my basement which means access to lots of fun toys and one of those is a Ludlow Typograph (it makes metal type to print off of ? all you really need to know). We have lots of different typefaces so it was a matter of finding the right one and the right font.
I ended up using 40pt Karnak Light for the large stuff and 30pt for the smaller bits. Some magic happens with the above mentioned Ludlow and *poof* you have type! I pressed the clay into it (after spraying it with some Zeplon to make sure it did not stick), cut out a rectangle around my letters and attached it to the TARDIS. I know it is not perfectly centered, but clay is a tricky thing to work with and you cannot be a precise as you would like (plus the size of my lettering hindered the whole center thing as well ? but I am ok with that).
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/7.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/6.JPG
It then had to dry completely (so it would not blow up in the kiln) and be taken back to school. This is when the object is at its most fragile state ? you have never seen so much bubble wrap surrounding one little thing in all your life. :lol: It arrived safely at school, and survived the first firing (thank god).
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/20/9.JPG
All dried out and around 17 inches tall at this point.
Good model on the left, light model in the middle, first lid model on the right.
The only blue glaze available that I thought even came close to the real TARDIS had warning stickers all over it because it has something dangerous in it that I cannot remember the name of. Anyways, you cannot eat out of whatever you glaze with it, which is fine as I was putting a light in my box and not my morning cereal. But I still got a stern talking to by one of the adjunct professors about how I know not to eat out of it ? but when I am gone, what if someone else does not know? I told her if anyone is eating out of a lamp, they have bigger things to worry about.
I glazed it (minis the letters as they would have gotten filled in with the glaze), fired it, added paper windows, the door sign, and a light and my TARDIS was complete! Glaze will run if it is applied to thickly, hence some of the ?puddles? at the base. I tried to use a dremel tool to take them off, no luck. Professor?s advice: ?Just say you meant it to do that?.
It is missing some of the fine details the real thing has, but for a first try and working with a finicky material like clay, I am pretty damn proud of it.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/21/13.JPG
Light is on in that picture.
After I had it home for a while, I thought the lettering was getting lost in the dark blue, so I painstakingly painted them white on two sides. I think I like it, but have not had the time to go back and do the other two sides, nor touch up the first two.
https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mc/mclightning95/2010/03/21/15.JPG
The thing is a pain to photograph ? so please believe me when I said it looks better in person.
I hope you like it. If anyone wants more details on anything in here ? just ask
Last edited:
Thanks.
