Mother and Child in winter

10 inches tall, bronze upper body with white patina, alabaster lower body.
This is the first project I have completed for Spring 2007 semester. This stone was left over from the Tortuga Grande sculpture and I thought I should put it to use. The stone looked like it could be the skirt for a sculpture of a woman. I added a baby because my mother asked me to do another mother/child sculpture. The mother is shielding her child from the cold by keeping him wrapped in her shawl. I imagined her walking through the snow with her hair being blown by the wind. Hence, the sort of sad but determined look on her face.

Wendy and the Last Supper

This is a Wendy, a fellow student. Wendy is an electrician by trade. Wendy has been working on one major project for six semesters. You can see the Last Supper in brown wax on the table. It is magnificent. Wendy worked on the "art" for five semesters and this semester she made a mold out of rubber. The sculpture in the photo is from wax poured into the mold. The original sculpture was ruined when she made the rubber mold. However, now she will be able to make multiple copies if she so desires. Next semester, Wendy will gate the sculpture and we will pour it. I think we will all be holding our breath when it is poured. We have all admired the project these past few years and are looking forward, maybe not as much as she is but close, to the bronze final product.

Fellow students

These are some of the students in my sculpture classes. This was a pour day so we were discussing the plan for the day. Every single person in these photos has helped me with my sculptures and I have helped them with theirs. You can see a few wax sculptures on the table. Collaboration is key!

Roxanne, the artist

This is Roxanne, a fellow student. Roxanne is an artist by profession. She is depicted with a sculpture she did a few years back. In addition, to sculpture, Roxanne makes beautiful tiles and has worked on tile projects with students at many, many schools. She has done other public art projects and has had several commissions including one at Barona Casino we were able to observe. She is very knowledgeable and very kind. She helps many students, including me, with advice and encouragement on our sculpture projects. This semester, Roxanne very patiently started to show me how to weld. I made practice welds on a spare piece of steel and she was very encouraging. I have a long way to go but it was a fun start.

Sara and her mermaids

This is Sara, a student in my sculpture classes. Sara took sculpture classes for many years then took a break. She has been back for two years and I have been in several classes with her. Sara does very fine work. She did some sculpture for the San Diego Chargers a few years ago. The large piece with the multi colored stained glass to the right of Sara was done by Sara last year and won Best of Show in the student art show at the college. The piece further to the right with green stained glass won an Award of Merit in this year's show. My favorite piece is the sculpture of the woman in a red dress which is on the table right in front of Sara. Sara has many more pieces than depicted in this photo. She does a lot of bronze mermaids. Her work is finely detailed and exquisitely produced.

My Teacher

This is my Sculpture professor Jim Wilsterman. Jim is extremely knowledgeable, creative, kind and generous. All of his students love him. He knows how to use every machine in the building and can fabricate anything. Often, there are parts for some of the machines that are out of stock or no longer made and Jim will fabricate whatever we need. He can build anything and if something is broken he can fix it. More than anything he is extremely supportive of his students. He is very encouraging of students' vision and creativity and offers suggestions to help make every project an improved reality. He tirelessly works for improvement in the art department and there would be no sculpture program without him. In fact, Jim has been unable to create his own sculpture pieces for years due to his devotion to the students and college. I have learned so much from Jim and am so grateful to have stumbled upon his classes.

Breaking the mold

The molds are removed from the tub and banged on the concrete to try to crack and remove the investment. We use hammers and chisels to remove the rest of the investment. In the photo, there are several pieces strewn around in various stages with investment pieces and dust laying on the ground. Candace is shown using a hammer and chisel to remove the investment on her piece. Her piece is a woman wearing a long skirt. You can see the gating and cup which were also filled with bronze. After the major part of the investment is removed, the gating is cut off and the piece is sand blasted. Later, comes the clean up with our trusty rotary tools. It takes hours to cut off the gating and clean up the pieces.

The molds are filled

After the molds are filled with bronze, they quickly start to cool and the bronze turns from red molten to black as depicted. The molds cool upright as in the photo, for about 30 minutes. Then, the molds are removed from the rack and placed in a tub of cool water. As the molds are added, the water steams and hisses and sometimes boils. Cool water is constantly added and the molds begin to crack open. The molds are left in the tub until the water becomes tepid. This takes about another 15-20 minutes.

The pour

After the molds are heated, they are placed in a sand pit for the pour.
The crucible is raised and with the overehead crane it is moved to the molds.

The crucible is hanging on a mechanical crane but it is tipped by hand for the pouring of the bronze into the molds. In the photo, you can see bronze being poured into the individual molds. At this point, anyone who has a mold in the pour is holding their breath until their mold is filled. The folks who had repairs done to their molds are especially happy when their mold is filled without cracking open. Sometimes you can hear a mold cracking and we are all crossing our fingers it does not break open.
Notice the persons closest to the crucible are wearing protective clothing and face masks. It must be obvious how hot and potentially dangerous the pour can be.

Melting the bronze

This photo depicts bronze ingots being loaded into the crucible to melt. This crucible holds 450 pounds of melted bronze.
While bronze is melting inside the crucible, other ingots, later to be loaded, are placed around the crucible to heat.
The crucible is checked periodically to determine if more bronze should be added. There is a pile of bronze ingots depicted above left of the open crucible.
Students weigh their wax piece and gating before the very first dip in the investment process. That weight is used to calculate the amount of bronze the student must purchase before the piece can be poured. If the wax piece and gating weighs 1 pound, 11 pounds of bronze must be purchased. I have never had a one pound piece. Most of my pieces weigh at least 2 pounds which would require 22 pounds of bronze. Bronze can be purchased at metal supply stores and is currently selling for almost $8 a pound. Students get a small discount. We also re-use gating and cups from prior projects after they have been cleaned and sand blasted. Now you know why bronze sculptures are so expensive: the bronze is expensive!

Repairing and heating the molds

After the burn out, the molds are removed and inspected. Notice how the molds are now white. Very often small cracks and less frequently huge cracks are found in the molds. Cracks appear for many reasons: the mold was too thin in a section, there is a stress point or simply because it was dropped or banged up against something. The molds are very carefully inspected for even the smallest cracks because when the melted bronze is poured into it, the entire mold may break. All cracks are repaired with cement and fiberglass. In the molds in the back of the photo, you can see molds with gray. The gray is the color of the cement repair. The students slab on the cement, wrap the crack with fiber glass strips then put on more cement. We do the burn out the day before a bronze pour so there will be time to do the repairs.
After the molds are all inspected and repaired, they are placed in a kiln to heat before the melted bronze can be poured into them. Sometimes additional cracks form in this second heating and if so we repair them again.

Cut off and burn out

After the molds are dipped and sanded 12-15 times, a final dip is done. The final dip does not include sanding. After the mold is dry after the final dip, the top of the cup and metal handle are cut off. The photo depicts molds that have been final dipped and the cut off has been completed. You can see the brown wax inside the mold. Note: the thickness of the mold. The mold has to be thick enough to survive the heat of the melted bronze.
The students are loading the molds into the burn out kiln. The molds are loaded into the kiln so the wax will pour out from the opening created after the cut off was completed. The molds are heated for at least two hours until they are completely clean of wax. The wax accumulates at the bottom of the kiln. We reuse the wax to make the cups discussed in a prior post.

My first "show"

I finally did it. I entered two of my sculptures into the student show at Grossmont College. These are photos of the two sculptures I entered: Las Comadres II and Turquoise. There were 322 entries including drawing, painting. photography, jewelry, 3-D Design, computer art, and sculpture. There were about a dozen awards given juried by the Art's Council which includes college instructors from the various disciplines and community members. Las Comadres II won an "Award of Merit." I am thrilled and humbled by the other art exhibited. My friend Jeff said I can now refer to myself as an award winning artist. I don't think I'm quite ready for that but it sure feels great.

The investment process

The images depict the investment process. The investment process is the means by which a mold of the art is created.
The tub in the first photo is filled with slurry. It is a liquid substance that when dry is much like concrete. The slurry looks bright yellow in the photo but it is actually a lime green. When the slurry is dry, it changes to yellow and we know the mold is dry enough to be dipped again.

The gated project is dipped in the slurry for about 30 seconds. Here, the mold has been dipped and is hanging from the hook so excess slurry can drip into the tub. While it is hanging, the artist makes sure to blow out any bubbles that have formed in the slurry on the mold. Bubbles create air pockets which weaken the mold or may allow cracks to form.

The next step is for the wet mold to be covered with sand. The second photo shows the mold in the sand container. The artist must make sure sand is poured over all sides of the project. All nooks and crannies must be covered with slurry and sand. For the first four dips a very fine sand is used. Care must be used because the mold is still quite fragile. For the remaining dips, a thicker sand is used and the mold builds up more quickly and becomes quite sturdy and very heavy. In fact, some of my molds have become so heavy [Tortuga grande especially] that I cannot dip them myself. I am grateful for the help of fellow students.

The mold is then hung on a hook to dry. In the earlier post about gating, a couple of molds are seen drying on hooks. When the mold is dry, usually at least 2-3 hours after being dipped, it must be dipped and sanded again. It takes about 12-14 dips and sanding for the mold to achieve the thickness necessary to withstand the high temperatures and stress involved in the burn out and pour.

The mold depicted here is the little girl sitting on a rock project documented in prior posts. It might be hard to tell because she was gated upside down. The round tip pointing to the slurry tub is her head. In this photo, it had been dipped seven times already. It needs to be dipped 5-6 more times before it will be ready for a final dip. In the final dip, no sand is used.

The investment process takes weeks to complete because it can only be done during class hours and at most two dips can be accomplished in one class session. Sometimes, I go to school during a break in my day to dip my work. If I didn't do so, I don't think I would have been able to complete all of the projects I have done thus far. I am grateful for my flexible schedule. Also, many of us agree to dip each other's work if we are at school at different times so we can get our molds finished faster! There is a lot of cooperation during the investment process. Everyone is excited to get their molds done so they can be burned out and included in a pour.

Gating the art

After the art is completed, the gating process begins. The artist must construct a method for the molten bronze to reach the art. In the photo, the three pieces depicted in in red and brown are gated projects.
The artist creates a "cup" which is where the molten bronze will be poured into the mold. A paper cup is sprayed with mold release and a piece of metal is bent and inserted so the mold can be hung to dry during the investment process. Scrap wax and used wax is melted and poured into the paper cup. The metal hook is inserted so it will be embedded in the wax and will hold the completed mold. When the wax cools, the paper cup is removed.
The next step is for the artist to use long strips of red wax to construct a path for the molten bronze to fill the art. Thick strips of red wax are used to create a channel from the cup to the art. Smaller tubes are placed from the top of the art piece back to the cup to allow the bronze to escape. The wax must be cut to the right length then attached to the art. It is critical for the gating to be sturdily attached at all points. Toothpicks and wooden sticks are used to reinforce the joints and a very strong wax we call "sticky wax" is also used.
In these three gated pieces, the art is in brown wax in the middle of the gating. Once the piece has completed the investment process, the top of the cup including the hook will be cut off which will proved a wide opening for the molten bronze.
Many beginning students get very frustrated at the gating stage because if the joints are not really melded well, the structure will fall apart. Attaching the cup to the structure can be very difficult because it is heavy and an awkward shape. However, the cup is a critical component because it holds the entire structure together.
I had many mishaps when I first started from the cup falling off to gating detaching from the art. I have learned from many mistakes.