Pouring the Base

Today was the pour of the base stingray "Peeking" out of the sand. It was a exciting yet, bit stressful day as I have seen what can happen if the spurs are not set correctly. Blow-Up time. After spending about fifty hours building the base and creating the texture of sand in a slab of wax, the last thing an artist wants to see is their piece in "Pieces" Daniel was coaching me; "Always watch your feet and everyone elses." In other words, make sure there is nothing under your feet when you are handling 2200 degrees of molten bronze.

Getting Ready for 1700 degrees "burn-out" wax

Daniel giving me waring about "Watching Out the Feet"

2200 degree Bronze

My First Pour

Amazing if I must so say

Texture of the sand is perfect

Wowo... Looks whos on the cover of the Coast New 24th Feburary

Arts Alive 2015 Feburary...
June 7th Auction begins at Cardiff Seaside Market Center
Come Bid #24 is Yogi Surf Crossing ! See you there!

A Great Day at the Foundry.

Amazing day learning more attachments for the Drumel Tool. Yes, I am excited to learn what tool grinds down bronze after the big angle grinder, its a Carbite steel bit! Now, I know why guys feel so mucho, holding that tool and feeling the 20,000 rpm WOWOOWowowo. Daddy, are you watching over me?

Hardhat, gloves, eye protection, mask clothes from the thrift store, I am ready to grind away.
Dunked kelp in wax, used the sander, began spurring the base of the Trio. Its a great day at the Foundry.

Ocean Dancer II the first steps

After heating up the bronze agite to 2,400 degrees it is time to pour. The shell is stablized before the bronze is added.

The Crucible is the glowing orange pot that holds the molten bronze

Within hours an artist is able to clip away and see their sculpture

Bronze Trio being Created

Many hours cleaning, grinding, sawing, clipping away at the ceramic shell, bits of bronze that are not part of the sculpture takes days of work and lots of patience. It is all worth the amazing reward of the finished project.

from wax to rough, then grind

Sand Blast

1st Polish of many

First polishing after the grinder, then sand blasted

Today, the third ray will be spurred and the larger Ocean Dancer II will be poured.

First Cleaning

Process of Casting

Bronze casting is very extensive

Once an artist creates a clay sculpture, a wax mold is created. The ray on the front right is raw bronze before any sanding has taken place.

"Sculpture Works Inc" at http://www.gobronze.org/from.html has a wonderful web page that explains all the steps involved in creating a bronze sculpture.
Click the link " Go Bronze" and enjoy!
Go Bronze

Today was a new experience, using the tool called the "Angle Grinder", it sawed off the spurs which were attached to the "Twins", they were poured together and are apart of the "Trio". Also, worked on cleaning up the wax molds of Ocean Dancer II and creating more sand on the base for the trio.

Ocean Dancer II 

Ocean Dancer II 

One of Three..."Peek-a-Boo" in the "Sand"

The Twins were poured first, they will be "Swimming" above the
Ray who is in the sand.

"Tummy"

Ready to be Sand Blasted, cleaned, polished and presented

Different Angle

Between the Encinitas Street Banner and preparing to launch an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign for Ocean Dancer II, it has been a very busy New Years Week.

Creating the banner went pretty fast, because the design was from my painting as well as the T-shirt design. The difficult part developed when I purchased an acrylic painting pen to do the bronze outline. The rough tip of the applicator took off the original paint, then the paint come out of the applicator too watery, cleanup time. Secondly, Angel my kitty got her tail in the lime green paint, cleanup time number two. Holding kitties’ tail was not an easy task, wiping it with a paper towel caused the paint to get onto other parts of her tail. Over to the sink we moved, tail in water and organic soap. What a chore.

Third adventure, the black marker that was used to outline the sign bled when applying the clear-coat UV protection. Interesting, the surfer was painted with the same pen and it only bled slightly, but why? The marker was acrylic for painting? Well, it’s finished!

Four days before Christmas and I feel as today was a great gift given to me for the intense work I put into the clay mold of Ocean Dancer’s I second pour. Spending many hours perfecting the smoothness of the clay really paid off. One may not notice it in the following photos, as the bronze comes out of the furnace at 2,000 degrees, but I can tell it is going to be a smooth lovely finish. In about 40 more hours of work!

Le Beau Touché is a sulfur free, extremely smooth and flexible plasteline with exceptional adhesive qualities, but too soft.

• The summer heat made the clay very soft, every nail and finger print showed.
• More clean up to eliminate the imperfections from the marks in the clay.
• Careful with the tools, any “miss-taps from a tool showed up on the clay. 
• More clean up to eliminate the scratches
• Dust, clean it up

Next clay

AMACO Modeling/Sculpting Materials > Industrial Styling Clay (HBX-2)

Non-hardening. AMACO® Industrial Styling Clay is excellent for designing large and small models. A medium firmness clay that can be carved, extruded, shellacked or painted and held to +/- 1/2000 inch tolerance. 

Today was the pour…..

Seven layers of sand creates a ceramic shell

Ceramic shell is heated to 1700 degrees to prevent cracking

30 minutes later it rests in a pile of dry clean sand.

Molton Bronze is heated to 2000 degrees, broken glass is added to the bronze to release impurities.

Clean very hot molton bronze secure and ready to pour

Nic's first pour!

2000 degrees

One hour after the pour the ceramic is removed from the sand to cool.

After 30 minutes, its grab with large prongs and water is poured on to crack the shell.

A very clean break

Next the spurs are sawed off

Baby Sting Ray

After speaking to Michael owner of M & M Surf School in Seal Beach, we have come to the conclusion "Moms" have their babies in the clam waters. If you are near a jetty or outlet, "Do the Sting Ray Shuffle" Mom is near by and stepping on her can be extremely painful.

Today is a presentation in Sculpture lecture, 5 minutes to convey my message.

Judy Salinsky

Title of the Work: Ocean Dancer II

Context:

Growing up on the beach, has brought me into contact with a variety of marine life living off our California Coast. The one creature that stands out the most is the California Round Stingray, (Urolophus halleri). The purpose of my sculpture is to bring awareness to the public about these wonderful creates and the interaction when entering their domain.

What:

Bronze Sting Ray Sculpture with a wing spanned of 21” and tail length of 36” . Curved tail from base, The height, approximately height of forty inches. The rods will be hidden by the flowing kelp and give support to the ray, extending the ray in mid-air creating an appearance of swimming.

Why:

My intention is to cast a large bronze stingray sculpture depicting beautiful stingrays in their natural habitat and install it in public view with a plaque educating beach-goers on the presence of these creatures, and how to safely enjoy the beach, protecting themselves and the stingray habitat at the same time.

Sting Ray Shuffle II:
The Making of Bronze Ocean Dancer II