To date I have made two brass sculptures using the lost wax process for my MFA Show. It is truly a magical moment when they are born from the investment mould. Your baby has arrived into the world intact! However, there is still much preparation work to do before each cast is ready to be shown.
Firstly they must be cleaned to remove the investment, slag and wax that is still stuck to the surface: for this process I used the sand blaster. I then employed a wire brush to polish each building. Great care must be taken and protective goggles are essential. A quality wire brush is a must also as inferior tools can result in stray wire projectiles penetrating your soft skin at speed! This could have been the final stage but I required a finish that made my buildings look old. To achieve this I used an antiquing fluid applied with a brush to a grease free surface. It is my main intention that the artworks in my final Masters Show may inspire a viewing audience to wonder. That they might ponder upon an object set before them and consider its origin is another. This second intention though is one that I would forgive if you couldn't be bothered asking. What I do wish though is that you begin to appreciate an artifacts aesthetic qualities. That you dare to expand your definition of what you think might be termed as 'beautiful'. If you do however consider an object origin the rewards can be exciting......
After around a year of collecting a number of large round metal lids, I realised I was finding them in a small stretch of coastline. Scattered adjacently I noticed lumps of tar. An internet search to interpret these finds led to an Angus Council report: 2:1 This report describes proposals for extending coastal protection works at land known as Dowrie Works, located on the coast about a mile south of Elliot adjacent to the Arbroath Golf Club........The site occupies an area of grassy sand dunes sandwiched between the main north-south railway line and the beach, and covers an area of about 3.2 ha. 2.3 The factory itself was established in 1890 and has produced bitumen products that would most likely have been derived from coal tar, a by product from gasworks. Over the years of operation the bitumen factory was expanded several times and historic maps show the expansion of the site over the beach as a refuse tip. Further research revealed that the factory sustained an attack by a German Heinkel bomber in WW2. The demise of the factory ended in closure in 1970. Decades later the remains of the demolished factory await discovery by keen wondrous eyes. These metal lids are interesting enough for me to be viewed without revealing their secrets. However the bequest bestowed by their ancestry does add to their beauty. When I first displayed my glass cyanotypes for the January review I used magnet spacers to displace the support from the wall enabling natural light to illuminate the image. Since then I have been searching my favourite online auction site for vintage darkroom lamps to convert into light boxes. To date I have procured three lamps plus an old carbon carbide bicycle lamp found on the beach in Shapinsay, Orkney. To make them Health and Safety compliant I have been rewiring them with two core cable. The lamp is illuminated by a bayonet type led bulb, cool white. I have used a led bulb to reduce the temperature inside the lamp so that the gelatine in the cyanotype is not compromised. Tuesday morning saw me excitedly entering the Jewellery Workshop at Gray's School of Art to begin preparation for casting on Thursday. I am eager and excited to play with the amazing facilities on offer, for who knows if I will ever get this opportunity again? Under the guidance of Head Technician, Phil Chaplain, I began by preparing my wax model. Wax sprues are added to the piece, these will be the channels into which the molten metal will flow into the sculpture. Once the sprues have been added the wax sculpture is weighed so that I can calculate how much metal is required. For brass the formula is 8.8 times the weigh of wax. To be safe I multiplied by 9 as I was unsure of the pureness of my brass. It was important for me to use brass shells in this project but the number required was more than I could procure so I used a combination of shells and old window fittings. With the metal prepared the wax sculpture was set in the investment - a mix of plaster of paris and silca. This then went into the ceramic kiln for a 12 hour burnout programme. With the mould ready it was time to begin melting the metal by placing the brass into the crucible and heating it to 1000 degrees centigrade! Because my wax model was solid a lot of metal was required and it filled the crucible to capacity. Once the crucible was full of molten brass it was time to retrieve the investment flask from the ceramics kiln and load it into the bottom of the investment casting machine. A lever on the top was depressed which allowed the lava to flow into the mould below. When released from the machine you need to wait until the hot metal turns a cherry red before it can be quenched. The brass sculpture born from its womb will now need to be cleaned and polished. Thankfully there was JUST enough metal. The lesson learned is to make my next wax piece hollow.
With a matter of weeks till hand in of practical work I have been impatient and anxious to get into the jewellery workshop at Gray's for my investment casting project.
The studios and workshops are at present uber busy with the undergrads manically making and preparing for their end of year exhibition. I decided therefore that it would be wise to wait till after the Degree Show My main worry though in waiting to get started is that I may fail at this new untried process. Head technician Phil Chaplain assured me that he would allocate me two sessions so that if the first attempt was unsuccessful I would have a second opportunity to succeed. For my casting project I will be employing the lost wax technique. There are different grades of wax that you can buy which vary in pliability. To sculpt the wax I used dentistry tools and a mentholated spirit burner. The burner allows you to cleanly melt the wax and heat the tools thus preventing a contaminating sooty residue. It is important to note that the resulting cast will be an exact replica of the wax model. Today saw me excitedly take delivery of the publication I have produced to accompany my latest film that will be premiered at Gray's School of Art, MFA Exhibition in September. The A5 publication is composed of manipulated stills from my movie. It is a monochrome narrative of my two year Masters journey. An autobiographical tale, an exploration of local landscapes and my movement through them. A cathartic pilgrimage of self-analysis and healing. The limited edition visual publication will be free for visitors to the Masters Show. The piercing pain that is the pressure of a looming deadline is at present compounded by the persistent pitter patter of heavy rain that punishes and enforces me to work indoors when I am desperate to be out taking footage to finish off my film collaboration. Another sixty seconds of blustering angry seas is all that is required.
It is not as if I do not have plenty of other tasks to address.......my thesis for example. Yet I am still managing to avoid the inevitable task of 10,000 words. And why? I am not sure. It's not as if I don't have a question to answer or a structure build upon. And yet today saw me hiding in the darkroom and working on my argyrotype series of prints. As with everything alternative and darkroom, processes and good results always take twice or thrice as long as you expected. However, the extended time spent in my dimly illuminated darkroom is peaceful, happy and contemplative. Nothing is rushed and results are always analysed before the next image is begun. This is especially important for three reasons:
By mid-afternoon I had a number of prints that I was happy with. The rain has stopped too! Time to venture forth.......... |
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