Lily: The slideshow
July 2, 2009 by cynthia
Awhile back I’d posted a slideshow of one of my sculptures, Lily, showing the steps in making the clay model. During the move to a new webhost, the slideshow was lost, and I’ve gotten several requests to replace it. So…here ’tis. Enjoy.
Thank you for posting this slideshow – fascinating and inspiring!
G
Said it before…I’ll say it again:
Bronze, Bronze, Bronze, Bronze… cast that baby in BRONZE.
Just wondering if you have much experience in mold making for casting in metals and the clean-up (chasing a great end result) of same.
Now that I’ve figured out the mold making process for reasonable results, I still find the whole thing remarkably time consuming. I’ve been casting fortun from Ball Consulting and using their polytek rubber mold making materials.
I’m wondering how Renaissance sculptors achieved their lovely surfaces with the tools available at the time. Were their pours always perfect? How did they fill pits (air bubbles). What did they grind and polish with?
I’m using a dremel, primarily, with carbide tips and sundry other stone diamond tipped tools. Wow, A small piece has taken me weeks to clean up. Maybe 30 hours altogether. Is this to be expected? (Of course, I am dealing with a learning curve as regards tools and equipment.)
Anyway. Thanks for the list of sources.
Best regards
Glenn
Glenn, I have no experience in large-scale metal casting (tho I used to do a lot of lost wax casting in silver and gold for jewelry), so take this with about 60 grains of salt.
A friend of mine is a professional moldmaker who works large-scale–I was at her studio in early July and she was just starting the moldmaking process for two figures that would wind up about eight feet tall, from the looks of them, in bronze. Her molds are gorgeous, and she uses the polytek silicones, says they’re the very best she’s found. In fact, for the moldmaking part of this, polytek’s website has the nicest set of tutorials I’ve ever seen on making all types of molds. So I think you’re ok on the materials.
You might want to take a foundry class to learn spruing, venting and pouring–even with the small-scale stuff I’ve done, that stuff is critical. If you’re pouring from a crucible, slow, angled from the side, with vents at all the high points to ensure that the air CAN get out.The bigger you get, the more complicated it is, so I’d definitely take the class. It’s probably worth it to go through one pour with a really good foundry–my bronze sculpting friends say it’s an invaluable lesson.
The other big deal is checking the wax–if you’re using victory brown the daggone dark color makes it very difficult to see small pinholes and flaws, particularly if, like mine, your work has a LOT of detail. Every mistake in the wax seems to magnify in the casting, so you’ve really got to check the wax well. One thing I’ve learned is that one light isn’t sufficient when you’re working wax–get yourself four or five incandescent and fluorescent clamp lights and stick them on your worktable at every angle-the more light you can put on the wax, the better. Then–this is a trick that Philippe Faraut taught me–turn off all but one light–it’ll cast shadows that let you see additional flaws and fix them. Rotate the piece, make sure it looks good under THAT light, then turn that light off and switch on the next. Makes a HUGE difference for detailed work.
From what I’ve seen of friend’s pours, nope, the pours aren’t always perfect (and they tend to take place in sections, besides), and it seems as if the finish work takes as long or longer than the actual construction of the model. I don’t know that I’d use a Dremel–they’re underpowered for my taste–I’d probably switch to a Foredom or similar machine with a more powerful motor. Might make things go faster.
As I said, I don’t really work in large-scale metal (although that might be changing) but with glass, I find that the powertools sometimes get in the way and doing it by hand is actually faster. My bronze-using buddies also make use of the torch in finish work–to heat up parts and make them easier to work, set up patinas, etc. But there you’re getting into mystery territory for me.
BTW…just to keep you from getting spammed to death I’ve removed your email address from your comment. I have it offline, but spambots are all over the place, so it’s probably best not to post an address.
Thanks–
–cynthia