Fuzione, Sabbiare, Finitura…
On friday, about 3.30pm, I watched my first bronze being poured! My piece is actually now in 5 bits to be cast: the figures and then the support structure were both taken off to be cast separately, then I also cast 2 extra figures in case the first 2 didn’t come out, then we also did 4 extra arms (2 right and 2 left) as the arms are very thin and there was a risk they might not come out. (I have meant to blog about the earlier stages of conversion from wax to bronze but haven’t had time yet, so will do that later – as I also have some nice shots of it all.)
This morning I got to find out if the pieces had come out OK. I went down to the foundry room, and asked them if I could chip out my pieces. Initially one of them showed me how to do it, then I took over. I was using a hammer, and when required a couple of chisels of different sizes. The trick is not to hammer or chisel onto any of the bronze of the actual piece as you can dent it. But you can hammer quite happily on the runners and risers.
I started with the main ‘wave’-like bit of my sculpture. It had been tied up with lots and lots of wire for added strength in the ceramic, so I also had to cut and remove the wire as I went along. A few of the toothpick trees hadn’t come out, but otherwise all was good.
I then did the bamboo legs of the sculpture. I knew my piece so well, but even I had to keep thinking to remember which bits were sculpture and which bits were the sprues. I managed to chip off most of the ceramic of the non-sculpture bits, but the main bamboo rods were all thoroughly covered – so I had to ask for help. In fact what you have to do it bash really hard on the main base sprues, and the vibrations travel along the piece and crack and loosen the ceramic shell!
I then got out the figures out, and again had to resort to help, as I wasn’t brave enough or strong enough to shift the ceramic. However, I did discover that the bronze had managed to get to all the extremities of the figures, and despite the odd crack in an ankle, or a slight fault where the 2 figures meet, it was all in very good shape and would be fine with a couple of solders.
I then left the 5 bits outside the door of the sand blasting room, and was told to come back at 1.30pm for them.
When I got back after lunch, they weren’t quite finished, but I managed to peep through the little hole in the side of the building and caught a little glimpse of them being sand blasted.
The figures were finished, so I took them through to the small metal workshop to start the ‘finishing’ – finitura.
One of the Artigiani soldered the relevant bits for me. They have a very accurate oxyacetylene torch, and I think it was a silver solder they were using. He did a very neat job. One of the others (Roberto I think he is called) told me that I was being helped by a professor! In fact, he was teasing him because he teaches foundry work at the Art School here. He then cut off the sprues for me, and set me up next to Massimo to clean up the piece.
I was given the use of what I thought was a dremmel, but in fact is a compressed air rotary tool. It was an absolute dream to use, not at all comparable to an electric dremmel. I think it goes a lot faster, and seemed to vibrate far less. I started getting used to it, and found I could almost model the bronze, stroking it gently and easily finding the surface of my little figures – the curve of a chin, the crease of a bottom. Given the figures are the equivalent of about 5cm tall, it could have been fiddly difficult work, but by the end of the day, I’d nearly finished the 4th figure!
Tomorrow I start on the main bits of my sculpture!
