BRO Magnon

My friend "volunteered" to be president of the Winter Sculling Association, so what to do to mark the occasion? Well here's something to add to the Glenn Alsop award for Volunteers:

BRO Magnon in a demonic form - started as a sketch and then I thought about how to make it.... at first I thought I'd make the foray into three scanning so I contacted Thinglab.

They were very helpful and I learned a lot. I'll be using them on a future job - but not this one. Here I went the standard way via plasticine/clay on glass:

Then to the shops for the silicone rubber, two part casting resin and copper powder. It was so cold it took 24 hours for the silicone to set off - not the 6 to 12 promised on the box.... such is life.

Then figuring how much resin to mix to fill the mould just the right amount. didn't want water in this one so the standard displacement wasn't available. Well the guess was OK and after an overnight set it was get to with abrasive pads until it looked the real deal.

Maybe it's not demonic enough... maybe the winter weather isn't as ferocious as it could be..... happy sculling!

Winter Solstice 2012

Raining, cold - hey it's winter! The chooks were let out to run around and enjoy themselves but they weren't interested - back to bed they reckon.

The sky is grey and the moon is new - ready for an awakening  - but ready doesn't mean leaping to it!

But in the front the camellias are in full flower - and I need to get out and sweep some leaves. It's wonderful - there's one tree with two colours of flower - I'm not sure how it does it.

Winter of Discontent

Well the casting took a long time - and an even longer time to summon up the courage to open the mould. In fact it's a pity I didn't open it sooner - there are a few cracks that may not have happened if the glass hadn't sat locked in for so long.

What should have been three irises

Now it's time to get on with other work while I decide what to do - I've learned that:

• casting three complicated waxes at once is too hard
• letting the glass soak at top temperature for longer did work - the mould was full
• leaving thin glass in the mould is silly - the petals on the thinner flower cracked and broke
• having the glass too thin was silly
• I'm going to make this work!

A nearly good enough iris - yet to cut off the pouring lines

The cutting and fitting to the sculpture is going to be a bit of a challenge too.

Moving Right Along

A new job, a new place - life moves on - and the best thing is it's by the beach.

Glass Casting Experiment

"Secret Garden" at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 2006

Flowers are ephemeral, fragile things - I built a sculpture called Secret Garden - I think it was 2006. And as I left the flower show where it was exhibited I slipped on some wet matting and broke one of the irises.

So the sculpture came home and moved house with me and more flowers broke over the course of the years.

So now that there are no more of the original irises it's time to cast some new ones and to experiment with techniques. I decided to try lost wax - foolish perhaps - but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

wax iris

So here is the wax with the copper "stem" threaded to attach it to the sculpture.

I experimented with a sort of shell casting for the investment - a mixture of patching plaster and silica for the registration layer, then building up in layers of refractory mixture and fibreglass then refractory mixture and grog until a mould was made. Then the hours of steaming - not long enough there was wax burning out in the kiln. I used some old glass - reservoir remainders from previous castings for this experiment.

Just out of the mould and still covered in plaster

I should have allowed longer at top temperature too - the glass flowed but didn't fill the petals - but amazingly against the odds it seems to have worked - a rough casting and tricky to clean.... but the spirit of the thing has survived. Time to build three flowers and get the sculpture back together.

Almost clean and ready to cut off the sprues