Now: The Molding Process

I know it's been a month since I last posted. Wondering what we're doing? Wonder no more! It's hot, the kids are back in school, and it's project-finishing time. Today I'm going to post some photos (and maybe videos) of the casting process for Mike's last project.

When Mike gets to the end of a project, he can literally feel the exhaustion settle in, so for this project he spent time documenting the process.

Baer Bronze examines the piece for casting

The piece above has already been "tampered with," as I like to call it. Really it's just been cut up and pulled apart to make the casting process easier. Mike usually doesn't like this part, taking a knife or a saw and slicing into all his hard work. But it's worth it in the end.

Figure that needed to be "dismembered"

Here comes the blue stuff. This pretty blue goo is what makes the rubber mold. They mix it from powder and paint it on the clay. The foundry makes sure to get it into every nook and cranny. They're so good!

Painting on the blue goo

The foundry guy is hard at work. This piece is so complex. It took the foundry more than a week of driving up here, including some drying time, to get everything finished.

First coat

What amazes me is that through this process the integrity of the piece is maintained. This is the kind of job I'd be horrible at, because I'm so impatient and tend to do things halfway. Probably why I'm not an artist. Or a foundry person.

Second coat. Or third. I'm not sure.

After the rubber is finished, the plaster is prepared.

The "lath and plaster" comes next, creating a hard shell for the mold to make it stable.

If you think of lath and plaster, that's pretty much what they're doing here. This hard piece creates a stable shell for the rubber mold, which is what they will pour the wax into.

Totally plastered. Pun intended.

The plaster has to be completely dry before they can pull all this stuff apart. This took a couple of full days, but eventually we got there. The foundry came back the next week.

Prying the plaster off.

After the plaster is pulled off, the mold comes away. The video shows Adam from the foundry doing just that. Hopefully we didn't stress him out too much. But I think all of us - the foundry, Mike, and I - were happy that it was finally over. Mike goes to check on the wax this week, and hopefully we'll get some excellent photos to put up next time.

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Focus: Immortality

Several years ago Mike created Outside the Circle, which you can read about on a previous blog. Around the same time, he created this statue: Immortality Part of the story is mine. Shortly before Mike created this piece, I had my first miscarriage. What they say is true: you never understand how difficult it is until you go through one yourself. I remember talking to Mike about the sacrifices that so many women make. We give up our bodies for years at a time. Our bodies sometimes fail us. Our minds suffer when things don't go as planned. Emotions are high, and so are the stakes. This statue, aptly named "Immortality," is the embodiment of those sacrifices. Not only do women bear children, but we don't bear children. We adopt and we foster care, and we babysit our nieces and nephews. We lose sleep. We toss and turn. We worry. We lose our marbles. Sometimes, women can look down at themselves and see only stretchmarks. We a wreck of the person we used to

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Now: Time for Wax

Though my post is a little late, cut me some slack. It's raining and gorgeous outside, and we've been enjoying it. Might sound crazy, but I am so glad this summer is over. Tomorrow we head to Baer Bronze to check the metal. Before that, Mike had to go out there to check the wax: Mostly, this blog is going to be in photos. Because the photos are awesome and speak for themselves. When I look at this wax, I'm not sure what the purpose is. Here's what I know: Mike's pieces are cast using the Lost Wax method, which means the piece is cast in wax first, remolded, and then when the bronze is poured the wax is burned away. Hence, the lost wax method. This is an amazing shot. What I like about this broken wax piece is the detail you can see. This is pretty much what the bronze will look like. You know, minus the attachments on the bottom. There are some of the pieces that had to be removed and cast separately. The wolf is one of my favorite figures from thi

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