Foundry, round V (and hopefully not last)

Our final project for foundry was a "mythology piece."  I pored over many potential subjects, including Greek gods and heroes in Mycenaean armor, and a wendigo.  In the end I went with a field I find surprisingly underrepresented - American mythology - and a figure even less well-known therein, John the Conqueror.

 The wax.  The statue (not including added base) measures 8-3/8 inches tall.

Quite a lot went wrong here and there.  I made his shins a little too short, giving the impression of him being all torso, and initially positioned his belt down too low; I had to shave it off and sculpt a new one higher up.  Also, his belt buckle is pointing the wrong way (i.e., toward the tip of the belt).

To make the statue stand on its own, I wax-welded his feet to a small pedestal.  When cast, considerable shrink holes opened up at the arches of his feet, the insides of the thighs and on top of the head where the main gate was.  Lab technician Ray TIG welded all the gaps closed.

Finishing this statue after it was cast sent me to the emergency room.  A flake of bronze bounced behind my face shield as I was grinding off the sprues and stuck in my eye.  Luckily this type of injury heals easily, but in this manner I lost the whole day and failed to finish the statue satisfactorily by the end of the semester.

Since the main gate attached to the top of his head, I made his coif smooth and textured it with many tiny grinds from a Dremel cutting wheel after getting rid of the stumps.  Admittedly, these grinds do give the impression of a straight-haired crew cut rather than the desired curly effect.

The statue is finished with liver of sulfur on the skin and hair, bismuth sulfate and titanium dioxide on the shirt and ferric nitrate on the pedestal.  Unfortunately, the titanium dioxide doesn't stick well.  I rubbed most of it off, then waxed; the remaining powder quickly mixed in with the wax and ran onto other areas of the statue.  I will have to remove it and redo it at a later date.

I handmade his broken chain from some heavy-gauge steel wire I had lying around the house.  It's a simple butted construction, and lies loose in his curled hand (I would bend the fingers to grip it, but not until after getting the statue's finish right).  I'm pretty sure this method actually turned out better than making a wax chain cast in place would've been.

Foundry, round IV

 

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.

Foundry, round III

It's done!

Layered liver of sulfur and ferric nitrate patinas with a shoe wax finish.  It still smells like smoke.  I think it could've done without the ferric, which isn't highly evident on the finished piece, but I said I would try both, so I did.  You can see some in the deeper recess such as around the neck.

My first attempt at a clay positive for a sand-cast bas relief.  Obviously it'll require some re-moistening and building up so it won't fall apart (the plaster mold is actually supposed to be made while the clay is still slightly damp).

On another note, the first coat of ceramic on my chape came out slightly bubbled and crazed despite my best efforts.  On the first two coats, I tried to blow ceramic into every tiny crevice until I was dizzy.  The next bronze pour isn't for another three weeks, so I can take my time on the remainder.  I may make a silicon mold after cleaning up the casting, though it's a long shot if that'd be any use to anyone.

Foundry, round II

The Laughing Buddha of Newtown survived the casting process intact, but with a number of little warts caused by bubbles in the initial ceramic coat.  I'll have to remember to wear some well-fitting rubber gloves and pop every single bubble when I get around to my slurrying my akinakes chape, which is similarly  detailed.

I didn't take any photos of the gating or slurrying process, because 1)  it would've been difficult in the middle of class, especially in the very messy and crowded slurry room, and 2)  you can find plenty of photos of those processes, and they weren't unique in any way for my project.

For the past nine days, I've been grinding and cutting away the stubs and filing down the bubbles as well as various small ripples caused by the inevitable imperfection of the wax positive.

Next up is grinding off the last stump of the gate, and then applying the patina.

Foundry, round I

Here's the wax positive for my first assignment in Foundry, creating a talisman.  I worked from a little souvenir shop statue my parents have had for many years of the Laughing Buddha, whose astounding belly brings good luck to all.

I'm an American, and 13 years after reading Siddhartha in high school, the image that comes to my mind when I think of a "Buddha" is still the Chinese figure of Budai or Hotei.  Depending on who you ask, Budai may be a Buddha - a previous incarnation of the future Maitreya Buddha - but in no case is he claimed to be the Buddha, i.e. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha who founded Buddhism.  Nonetheless "Buddha" sounds like a rather round and jolly word to an English-speaker and that may be one reason the image is so persistent.

He's still not finished; the feet and left hand all need digits carved and I haven't attached his ears yet, plus the model should be hollowed out as much as reasonably possible.  However, the Sun was going down and the was may well be covered in slurry by tomorrow, so I figured it was now or never.

The one thing I'm not satisfied with is his face, which looks less jolly than the original, and more like a fat cave troll laughing at your doom.  Well, I did my best.