Arboreal Vivarium

[rodillablanco]

It's been quite a while since I've been on the boards. 4 years back I lost my house to forclosure -and a sizable T collection too. It took almost 4 years to get back to where I could even think about getting a T.
Back in the day, I could never think about getting a Gooty (P. metallica- but you folks know that). It seems the economics has changed a bit and slings are MUCH more reasonable than back when I was firmly addicted.
But as part of the diplomacy that is always involved in a spider fanciers' marital bargaining- it has to appeal to my wife as well. So, I'm going to take the tact that's worked before and make a 'bitchin show case that adds both aesthetics and harmony to the room. I've done well with a couple of planted aquariums, and used to make really cool environments for my Dart frogs- so I'm going to make a vivarium- to have both natural beauty and functionality. The trick has always been to keep the humidity high whilst maintaining awesome ventilation. Live plants could give a fresh concentration of O2 that is sooo helpful for the book lung set.
I have an old terrarium that used to house a very nice, very big Suntiger. She's actually in my Avatar picture right over there. I'm going to modify it.
I'll put up photos tomorrow ( I have almost a whole week of, so I can play a bit). But I wanted to ask you folk first about an idea I had.
This particular terrarium is a lizard cage turned sideways, so the screen top is on the side- or back as I have decreed it. Ventilation is great for a humid environ, but there's that screen wire and tarantula foot problem. It wasn't ever a problem for the Suntiger- but we're talking Gooties here, so I wanted to "seal" the weave so there COULD never be a torn claw/leg incident.
I searched DIY screen coating but had little luck. I kept searching. I started just looking for coatings.
What I found was spray-on epoxy- designed for appliance touch ups. I'm going to try it on the screen tomorrow, but thought I'd run it by you all first.
Has anyone tried to DIY a screen coating to seal those nasty wire weave sections?
I've used epoxy around very sensitive critters, but has anyone had a bad experience with spray-on epoxy?
If no one has a horror story, I'm going to spray in the morning and begin a build thread.
I'm going to construct a background in terra-cotta- glaze and fire the background: deli-cup waterer holder, epiphyte attachment places and a hide- all to fit in the back of this terrarium.
I've always loved "build threads".
So I'm starting mine with a couple of questions.

 

[grayzone]

no clue about spray on epoxy, but why not just use a sheet of thin acrylic? ditch the screen completely. Acrylic would work well AND look clean/prettier in the long run (likely, all i have to reference youre idea on is my imagination)
The backdrop sounds very interesting, and im DEFINITELY gonna keep an eye on the thread to see how it progresses.
I hope all your effort gets you the justification you need in the end welcome back to the hobby

 

[spider62]

I think a pice of plexiglass/acrylic with holes drilled for ventilation and attached with velccro or zip ties towards the center of the screen(to keep them out of reach) This is if you place it on top or the side. Epoxy should work as well, try looking for aquarium grade epoxy/sealant.Good Luck it sound's like your Ts are in good hands.

 

[rodillablanco]

Let the build begin

Okay, here's the pics..

First, here's the tank as it comes out of storage with the chosen epoxy paint. I really want to try the screen sealing, because nothing else ventilates the same. It it fails, I'll try the acrylic with a few hundred holes in it.

I did 8 coats on the screen- front and back on each coat. I oriented it both portrait and landscape ( if that makes sense- think of pages in the printer) so that the spray would flow evenly in all directions. I wish I could show an extreme close-up, because it did seal the weaves.


Once I cleaned out the tank, I realized that I really needed to do a pattern (template) of the background to make sure it would fit, and could be removed. Here's the template and the template in the tank:

Now that I know the size- next is to make the background. I'm conditioning a block of clay for tomorrow. It's going to look pretty big becaue the Clay I'm using shrinks about 12%.
I'll try and get the next pics up tomorrow. Things won't move quite so fast once the background is sculpted.

 

[rodillablanco]

Rough Sculpting

Well, I got some time today. And it actually only took a couple of hours. I have to admit that I know an awful lot about structural Terra-cotta- I used to do it for a living. I did the 2X2 ft tiles of columbines on Coors stadium in Denver years back, amongst a lot of other jobs. So that's why I was able to do it so fast. If you want more detail about the process I could probably break it down more.
But let's get started: here's the tools and Clay- ready to go.


I cut a big slab and whacked it into shape, and then rolled a slab with the slab roller ( on right in 1st photo)
Here's the first slab:


I mentioned that clay shrinks when you fire it. This clay is a stoneware with grog (pre-fired particles of clay for strength). Since I know it's going to shrink 9%, I upsized it and began cutting slabs. I made the main back plate, a tube (tree) and a side piece- to slow down the T when I slip in goodies.
Here's the rough structure:


Then I got creative. I started to make a rock, a water cup (deli) holder, and some vines. Tried to texture the tube to look like a log. I made some "vines" and then my son said the water holder looked like a mushroom- so I made several mushroom shaped epiphyte/air plant cups. I did see an awesome background with shelf-mushrooms sculpted in here on the boards - so in the end- I used ideas from the best. I'll have to look it up again to give credit.
So here's the rough sculpt. I have to let the clay relax in and then toughen a bit before I go for fine detail:


Now it gets slow. In about 5 days the sculpting will be done. Then the leather clay will need to dry out to bone. I'll update when I fire (unless there's questions about how to do this) If it works it'll be a very strong, hygienic backdrop with plenty of T exercise spots.

 

[poisoned]

That backdrop looks really amazing, teach me master!

 

[hydrophyte]

That is really cool. I don't think I have ever seen a backdrop made of real ceramic before. This sure is a lot more classy than something made of foam or plastic.

I need a slab roller. What make/model is that one?

 

[rodillablanco]

The Slab roller is an Amaco
here's the link:
http://www.amaco.com/shop/product-193-brent-mini-src.html
Here's the hint: buy a used one. The price used to be outrageous- now it's even worse. I saw a link to a DIY slabroller here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOCoivzq_pg

There is no doubt that a slab roller makes this 10 times easier. Uniform thickness really helps when the time comes to fire and big flat surfaces like to warp.
In the end this thread is an experiment, because I've never made a Terrarium background this way before. I've made lots of "furniture" ( waterfalls, hides, etc.) So hopefully, this succeeds and we have a thread on how to do it in Ceramic.

 

[poisoned]

Is there any easy way to fire clay at home?

 

[rodillablanco]

Unfortunately, unless you have a kiln, there's no firing at home. Yo need between 1300 and, say 1700 degrees F. to fuse the clay, most ovens don't have a melt-down setting. Schools and community colleges often have kilns, and they are often willing to share- the only problem being it's taken out of your hands. The upside of that is, if you don't have ceramic experience, the person overseeing the firing might be more knowledgeable, and there for an asset for your project.
I'm going to do a few more posts than I had originally planned to cover some of the finer points on handling this type of 3 dimensional stoneware. Potters have it easier in some ways that a spherical shape tends to strengthen an object. And different types of clays fire at higher and lower temperatures. In general, for stone ware (and our critter want stoneware- only food safe for them!) you need to reach 1064 F- this is called the quartz inversion- where silica fuses and re-crystallizes. A lot of the stuff I make goes much hooter- to really make the clay body brick hard. I have fired up to 2300 F.
I'll be sure to include firing shots, because it's kind of cool to see things glowing.

 

[grayzone]

.
I'll be sure to include firing shots, because it's kind of cool to see things glowing.

You had me interested at Fire/glowing lol.. i cant wait
So far it looks AWESOME already, and cant wait to see more steps and the final product. Good job

 

[rodillablanco]

Firing one is a success

In ceramics patience is THE virtue. It took awhile to dry the piece, and then my 13 year-old son (who's on summer break) beat me into the kiln with a really cool structure for his salamander tank (you'll see it later)
First: here's it going in the kiln:

Here's the promised photo of it glowing at somewhere over 1000 F.


Basically, this form is a tile. And with handmade tiles, the biggest problem is with square. Did it shrink evenly enough to stay square?
It seems it did:

You can see the side guard is a little less than perfect. But it should still work.

 

[rodillablanco]

Firing one is a success PRT2

View attachment 106492 View attachment 106492 Sorry. I reached the image limit so here's the rest....

Here it is fitted in the tank:


Looks good.
The top "mushroom" it made to hold a deli cup. I made holes beneath it, so that when spills occur they tumble down to the next "mushroom" to water the air plants that will live there. A test in the sink had water cascading perfectly from one to the next in a watering frenzy. As long as I don't clog them in the glaze fire it should be sweet.
Here's a detail of the holes:


You can also see the cut-away back on the log that gives extra T room, as well as allows the creation of a blind to view our little darling when she (gotta be a she- right?) doesn't want to be seen.

So finally, let's look at my son's piece, which is cooling from it's glaze fire as I write this.
Here's the sculpting phase:


And here's the fired piece with glaze before the second fire. The glaze is definitely NOT paint. So it will in no way resemble the colors you see. It should come out as really cool patterns in naturalistic colors- all made of glass.


This project is really turning out. I'll update with the glaze shots before my next fire. And shots of his Salamander kingdom.
I have some very interesting twists I'm going to try. And if it keeps working- this could really be a viable method of constructing naturalistic- and hygienic- enclosures.

 

[rodillablanco]

Salamander "furniture"

My Son took his piece out of the kiln this AM. I was at the fire stations annual pancake breakfast all morning, so he went ahead and stuck it in with his amphibian crew.
It really came out astounding! All the shots have Salamanders in them, but what are you going to do?
There's a Salamander nose in the "bunkroom" under the un-glazed lid.


Not Only did he nail it technically, I think his color patches make a sort of unnatural color scheme seem natural, it's really beautiful.
Here's another view:


And one more: now you can see he's managed to raise 3 salamanders from rescue in peace and Harmony.


Crap, now I have to live up to my 13 year-old son. He really did a good job and deserves to be shown off here.
I begin glazing tomorrow.

 

[grayzone]

thanks for the fire/glowing shot lol. That thing is really coming along. I cant wait to see it finished... your sons creation is cool too.. looks marble-esque Im sure those salamanders love it

 

[rodillablanco]

Glaze firing

I did get the time to glaze the background today, so it's going into the kiln tonight. I'm going to let my son run the fire while I'm at work. It's nice to have someone else around who likes doing it.
Here's the glazed piece:


It will look totally different, but I'm happy with how it is pre-fire.
I left a lot of area un-glazed. The back is completely glazed black.
I plan to try an innoculate the rough, open ceramic surface with moss blended in buttermilk. The plants should be able to grow right into the micro pore of the ceramic and really give it an awesome effect. Yet another experiment ( I can re-fire with more glaze if I'm wrong about the moss growing) that hopefully will work and result in a really cool background.
Stay tuned.
Sorry I can't open the kiln to get a really good glowing shot, but that often doesn't work out well. ie- things explode from thermal shock- this firing :1680 F.

 

[grayzone]

i would IMAGINE you wouldnt want a camera that close to an open kiln lol..
this is one of the most anticipated endings ive seen so far. Very original attempt, and so far it looks and sounds very promising.
Damn, the things we do for our creatures:sarcasm: SPOILED.. every one of them lol

 

[rodillablanco]

Our pets get to enjoy the freedoms we don't. And that's okay...
Maybe some day it'll be our turn:
[YOUTUBE]HpkmtweNQ-U[/YOUTUBE]
"We'll make great Pets!"

 

[rodillablanco]

First glazing

The glaze fire completed, and it wasn't quite what I thought. Two glazes, that I've used a lot- but never together- appear to be almost the EXACT same color. So my vines came out the same as the surface behind them. As I've said, glaze is not paint. It doesn't alway behave- some times this leads to great discoveries, other times to crap...


This is somewhere in between. The black back came out fine, as did the log- it's pretty cool, but there's just no contrast in the vine area. Mushrooms are quite nice as well, so I'm batting around 60% here. Not good enough for a Gooty, though. Here's the back:

So I stared at it for two days, and then did a little strategic re-glazing. It's in the fire now. Fingers crossed.

 

[grayzone]

what gives.. been a week.. any updates? Im curious about this backdrop.. Never seen a ceramic one before, and i admire the creativity. Very different approach