Much of the smooth finish and finer detail of my original clay was lost between the plaster mold, wax positive and sand mold.
Also, the upper right corner of the frame cast in a separate piece from the rest of it and had to be TIG welded. I tried doing a little TIG welding myself at the suggestion of Jon Burns since I'm looking into getting a job in the foundry industry, but it's pretty tricky and my attempts failed. Anyway, glowing-hot liquid metal is one thing, but when I can barely see what I'm doing while inches away from being electrocuted is when I get reluctant to continue.
The dragon itself is colored with ferric nitrate and the field with a heavy layer of liver of sulfur, which began to flake. The liver was strangely greenish when first applied. I had to brush back the two patinas several times with a Dremel wire brush to clean up where they splattered onto each other.
Unfortunately, the brilliant colors darkened and faded with the final wax. I also had to remelt the wax and rub off the excess when it began flaking the next day. Still turned out tolerably well, I'd say.
No comments:
Post a Comment