casting wild women

The conclusion of my 10/11/09 blog engaged stillness referenced me heading out to make scratch molds as part of a metal casting class. Learning the process exposed me to a new technique for goddess expression that was kind of wild. No big leap here, I decided to name this goddess series the wild women. The first time I made a metal gal, it was part of another class. What I didn't know then was it takes several sessions to get to a final product. What I now know is each step is fascinating not at all frustrating. I adopted my "don't wed yourself to any particular outcome" attitude, plunged in each week and though some pieces turned out better than others, I walked away a happy woman taking notes for a future time at the studio. Here are some pics I captured on my IPhone with a brief overview. Trust me, the process is much more involved.

Start by cutting pink styrofoam to mold sand around. Using a heated tool, you can burn an image into the styrofoam which is then placed into a wooden box made to fit around the form...

Sand is mixed with a two part chemical binder then packed around the styrofoam in the box. Chemicals actually cause the sand to change color and set. It has an acid smell; gloves should be used to pack the sand. Once it dries, pluck the styrofoam out of the mold which can be tricky..

Sand is scratchy and scratch is what you do to create an image unless you burned an image into the styrofoam. In that case, the design has no itch to scratch and is ready for the metal pour...

Here's where we turn up the heat!!! Solid metal is placed into a crucible (the pot in the pic) then placed into a furnace that has been heating up for more than 30 minutes. Aluminum melts faster than bronze and is also not as heavy when it cools. The pour shown is the bronze liquid which caught fire as it streamed from the crucible. Ouch...it's RED HOT!

The metal cools in the molds which are set on a sand base. Sorry, forgot to ask why on this one. What I can say is you do not have to get close to the cooling spot to feel the intensity of the heat, especially the bronze which takes longer to cool. Bronze also changes color as its temperature simmers down. Sort of smelled like a funky barbeque out there...

Almost cool, the sand easily cracks off by banging it on the ground. The warm metal pieces are dunked in a water bath to wash off some of the sand and cool them more. This is one of the bronze gals just after her immersion then after she was polished. Once polished, there is a process to put a little more patina on using a sulfur mixture and heat (hair dryer or torch) which I used. Just wanted to experiment with everything...pleased with the result.

My final picture is of the woman who got me started on this venture. This aluminum goddess was the first one I created as part of that class I mentioned, the one that introduced me to metal casting. A mold was placed in front of me, all I needed to do was stratch and sniff. I liked the result and decided to take the class that stepped me through the entire process and it really is a process as you can see. My women drove me wild at times especially the day I spent fours hours on my feet birthing them as I pushed into the sand with various tools. My poor back felt like I was carrying triplets...ah the joy of motherhood. It was all worth it and believe it or not there is so much more to learn about metal casting so....

keep your peepers open! ®