Pietrasanta Bronze Casting Residency 2010

Casting in wax continued:

So, last night in my blog I had got to the point where the mould had been closed, and Mauro had filled a pan of hot molten wax.

He and Carlo then poured the big saucepan of wax into the closed mould, and then the magic of ‘how long to leave it’ took place.

Some of the techniques of casting are fairly easy to learn, most are possible to learn but take a while and will need practice, but there are other techniques that seem like the dark arts and continue to be a mystery to me. The trick of how long to leave the wax in the mould so you get the right thickness seems just one of these.

They know the mould, they know what the weather is like, they know how hot the wax was when it went in, and they do this thing of scooping off the skin from the top of the wax look at the thickness of the walls as it develops.

After a few short minutes, its ready, and the wax gets poured out back into the same pan. Then its filled with cold water to be left for an hour or so to cool and harden fully.

In the meantime, I cast the ‘beak’ bit of my piece which had been moulded separately. It was a lot smaller, but I did it all so much faster, as I now knew how, and was proud that I barely had to ask Mauro much advice.

It was about an hour later when that was done, so we then opened the main bit of the sculpture – it was like being a small child opening a christmas present… and great to see my piece in the lovely dark black wax.

Only 3 weeks to go!

Slight panic and a desire to spend 24 hours a day in the foundry have set in, as I realise that I only have 3 more weeks till the end of my residency.

However, I think it will be ok, although it is hard to tell how long something will take when you’ve never done it before.

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog in the last week and a half as I had a little break for the easter weekend, then had a busy week last week, with a visit from the representative of the foundation funding me, as well as my husband.

However, on the work front, I’ve finished the mould of my clay sculpture and I’ve spent the last 2 days in the foundry casting it, so here are details of the process and some shots.

Casting in Wax:

I started casting on friday but having spent some time with Angelo learning how to make modeling wax, I only got as far as cleaning out my mold and preparing it before it was lunch time.

I cleaned it with a small metal tool, and the compressed air. Then to prepare it, I gave it:

– a layer of oil on the rubber (with a brush)

– a layer of grease on the plaster (only the bits that will come together, not the back)

After lunch I started layering up the wax. I took a small saucepan of the black ‘painting wax’ and heated it further on the gas rink, but without letting it boil.

Then I started painting it into the mould. It was actually harder than I thought it would be. It was important to go straight from the pan to the mould with good hot wax, and dabbing quickly a thin layer of wax. I had to reheat the wax every 5 minutes to keep it very runny.When I had a full coat of think, I then went over the whole surface again a bit more thickly to ensure there were no bits where the white of the mold showed through the thin wax.

Then a third layer was added of swirls to key the surface well – the trick was to make the wax look a bit cloudy/opaque/purple.

I then needed to reinforce the peaks inside the mould. If you don’t do this then these bit would end up with thinner wax, and then might not come out in the bronze.

To do this, I needed to prepare the ‘pastello’ – a warm soft brown wax that can be used almost like clay, but becomes very had when cooled. I had already learnt to do this before. I poured a ladle of the molten brown wax into a bowl of cold water, then with a bit of oil on my hands I needed the wax into a ball, quickly taking it out of the bowl, and needing it throughly so that it is all soft and mouldable.

Slowly I added spines to all the bits of the mould that created ridges, and small blobs on any little points.

The mould was then ready to be closed. They do this with neat little u-shaped bits of metal that you hammer on to the plaster edges to hold it together.

Mauro then lifted the mould using the gantry crane, and rested it on a low support, propping it to ensure the hole in the base was level.

I again made some more ‘pastello’ and made a 5 cm wall round the top, and a spout to make it easier for them to empty it.

It was then ready to have the wax poured in, but as I am out of space and its now late, I will continue this in another post tomorrow.

Weather

On friday when I was doing all the above (up until closing the mould), it was boiling in the casting wax room – it was 26.8°C! On saturday I got my flip-flops out for the first time, and it was lovely sitting in the main square having lunch – it felt like english summer.

However, Sunday morning we were woken to the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard, that went on for about 20 minutes, with a huge downpour and wind.

It cleared up later and was even sunny, but I’ve got back into my thermals as it is really quite chilly again!

Very nearly finished…
(continued from previous post)

I worked well yesterday afternoon and this morning, and in particular on the wing like side of the piece. I ended up sculpting the striations almost individually, as there were such complex curves and forms, that it worked better that way, than using a tool with grooves in it. I realised I’d lost a lot of the form, not just that the texture of the surface hid the form, but that the forms were more complex than what I had.

Around 10 today I heard a car horn beep, and opened the gate to Helaine accompanied by Salvatore (her assistant here in Pietrasanta, a lovely Italian sculptor). I think as the sun had come out, and I was pleased to see them I was smiling, but Helaine commented on it and when she saw the piece she went ‘ah yes, you’ve got it…’ and could understand why I was smiling.

We had a quick chat about it, and then she mentioned that yesterday Tom was surprised by how much time she was giving me. She said that she wouldn’t if she didn’t think I’d listen to her and take it in. She also added that she knows I won’t always follow her advice exactly. But I am really learning from her, and I realise how lucky I am.

Anyway, better run back to Marcello’s to put the final touches and talk to the ‘formatore’ (mould-maker) Lorenzo.

Its taken longer than I’d thought, but I’m nearly finished…

I’ve nearly finished my clay piece, probably just this afternoon and I’ll have finished sculpting it in clay. I’m hoping the mould maker Lorenzo will come by this afternoon so we can discuss making the mould, then it will need to go to be cast in wax, at which point I think I may have some work to do on the inside of the piece…

It is very exciting and a bit of a relief that the end is in sight. On thursday I invited Nigel down to have a look at it – and he commented on whether I wanted to get the changes in rhythm and texture that there were on the model. We talked about how to get the texture of the striations – and he suggested that I could make a tool.

On friday I did a lot of experiments, filling notches in my ‘hollowing/carving’ tool, carving grooves into a piece of wood, and one end of my large wooden tool. At times it was going well, and it enabled me to get the texture of the piece, but at other times I was being a bit frustrated.

Yesterday (monday) morning I was a little expectant as I knew that Helaine was back and she hadn’t seen the piece since the friday before last, when I’d only done about a day of building up the clay. I was looking forward to her input, I was interested to know whether she thought I should move away more from the model, or keep using it as my point of reference. And I was a little nervous to know what she thought about it

She arrived mid-morning with a visitor – Tom Flynn – who she described as an important critic. Straight away my blood pressure went up a few bars, but I tried to keep calm to get the most out of the opportunity of 2 sets of eyes looking at it.

The overall judgement was the the form and shape was working very well, but that in places the surface texture was letting the piece down – in particular in the area that I had been working on the most! Tom said some really interesting and useful comments – my model had an amazing amount of tension and energy, which would be good to translate through to the clay piece. I think he really liked the model and they both agreed that I should try to get it cast into bronze as well.

Helaine also mentioned that the editing and changes that I’d done relative to the model were working well. We talked a bit about how to get the texture and the uneven striations, and she told me that in the past she had used metal combs to good effect (I had shown her my attempts at tools).

When they were leaving Helaine asked if I was still doing the life class drawing and expressed an interest in seeing my drawings. As I had my sketchbook there, I offered to show them both, and as Tom was keen to see them too, I got it out with a bit of trepidation – I was suddenly worried about what failed embarrasing experiments I’d end up showing them. But they both mmm-ed and ah-ed appreicatively. Tom said it was great to see someone drawing and bemoaned the fact that so few art students are drawing.

It was also interesting to see how the drawings had evolved over the 6 or so weeks, and their relationship with the work I was doing. In the later ones I’ve been trying to draw the curves and structures of the figures, I’m sure influenced by finding forms and curves that are striated in my piece.

It all went well, and Tom seemed very interesting and easy going, but I still felt like I’d had at least 5 expressos after they left!

Yesterday evening I googled him, and found a wonderful catalogue of Almuth’s work which he had written the text to, which I read cover to cover.

http://www.tomflynn.co.uk/

http://www.tomflynn.co.uk/AlmuthTebbenhoffCatalogue.pdf

(Lunch now ready so I will continue this later)

7.20 am Saturday Morning: Gutting!

So, I decided to go into the foundry today to continue with some work I’d been doing before I started doing my enlargement at Marcello and Roberta’s studio. Given it was only half a day and I’d have to get back into something I hadn’t touched since tuesday before last, I decided to try to get a full 5 hours in before the foundry shut at 12.

Last night I packed myself a little breakfast of biscotti with nuttella instead of having my usual porridge, and I thought I’d supplement it with a strong ‘cafe’ from the wax room.

As I was cycling there through a very quiet Pietrasanta, I suddenly had a worry as to whether they would be open. I hope there isn’t another strike I don’t know about. Or would it be quiet as it is nearly the end of the month. At the end of February there were only a handful of people there on the saturday as the rest had already done their maximum number of hours for the month. But that time the 1st was the monday, Its not the 1st till Thursday.

But yes, as I approached the foundry there were about 2 cars in the carpark and only a single vespa, and most of the foundry was in darkness, including both the ‘officina piccola’ – where my 1st bronze is nearly finished – and all 3 of the wax rooms. I still walked all the way up to the wax rooms, just to double check I couldn’t get in… then on my way down again saw Enzo from the ‘Fusione’ department, who confirmed that hardly anyone was in as they’d all done their hours already. He said normally if people are going to come in, they’d be in by 7, but some might come at 8.

So, here I am back at the flat, with a mug of earl grey sitting on the terrace on a slightly chilly grey morning! I’m going to go back a bit after 8 and hopefully someone from the office will be there to let me in to the wax room. Or if not, I might spend the morning in the office looking through the catalogues and books on the artists they work with. At Marcellos I discovered that he has some amazing books, including Mythologies about Helaine’s work, and a survey of Dana’s work between ’82 and the late 90s I think.

So, before I go back, I will pick out some of the shots of the ceramic shell process I took a few weeks ago and add them to this post.