Short Pour

Unfortunately, the bronze casting of "Tess" resulted in a short pour. When I visited the foundry to check the new wax they also showed me the original result before melting it down. Of course, there had not been any point to removing all of the ceramic investment, replacing the windows or chasing it as this takes many hours!

It's amazing how they can take something from such a raw state back to looking indistinguishable from the original model. Here are some photos of the short pour bronze and replacement wax model.

Speed Sculpt

Here is a little something I did at the Seattle Sculpture Atelier's open studio. The scale is 1:1 and it took about 4 or 5 hours - should have been 6, but I kept getting caught in traffic!

Castorama

I offered a casting workshop this summer for some of the wonderful students who were asking about how to preserve their work. Deunan Berkeley kindly assisted and a good time was had by all. We made two part molds of their sculptures and cast with resin.

Hoagie Seated

I'm almost fin1ished with this 1/3 life sized sculpture of Hoagie and hope to fire it soon. Thanks, Chun for the photos!

Fun With Terra Sigillata

This seated female figure is hollowed out and ready to fire. Complete with two coats of terra sigillata. As my colleague Ken says, "it's like bathing it in slip" which will make the surface more fine grained and slightly glossy.

Seated Figure

I'm about 20 hours into a new sculpture of a seated figure. There is no wire armature, only bamboo skewers so it can be fired and glazed. It was a bit tricky sculpting the free hanging hand without support and I hope that it doesn't self destruct...  Thanks for the photos, Liz!

Making Progress

Many readers may know that I've been preparing for an exhibition and working on casting a backlog of sculptures for some time. Yesterday, I went to the foundry for the final touches and patina on a replacement  copy (#2 of a max 6 edition) of "Walking Warrior". More importantly, I dropped off the most recently completed clay sculpture tentatively titled "Morning". It was good to see her safely encased in silicone rubber and to know that she will not deteriorate.

Next up, I will need to touch up and cast "Katrina" and attempt to rehabilitate "Zack". Unfortunately, he needs new arms and hands, his lower legs should be re-sculpted and the body started to separate from the armature. I will try to get some photos in order to blog the restoration. Wish me luck - I'll need it!