I'm super excited about the upcoming CONJOINED IV show! Im honored to have Chet Zar and the Copro Gallery using my sculpture "Behind The Veil" for promoting the show. This prompted me in having the piece created in chrome plated BRONZE by Grant Standard at Black Hills Bronze! I met Grant at Conjoined II back in 2012 and have been itching to do something in metal with him and his talented crew. This is my very first sculpture to be made in bronze and I can't wait to see it on the wall at the show. Below are a few shots of the bronze process.
After completing, my sculpture called "Bliss" in Monster Makers Clay, I striped down the clay to reveal the skull I placed in at the start of this project. Doing this, insured that I would have the correct registration and depth for when I merge these two pieces into one. This will be done in the near future so stay tuned!
Above is the destruction of 'Bliss" and the beginning of "Behind the Veil".
Here I am putting the finishing touches on the sculpt, it took quite a bit of time to get everything just right and if I look too close at it I'm still not 100% happy...maybe 90%?
This is a shot of the outer fiberglass jacket created to hold the silicone in place.
Here is a pristine shot of the inside of the mold when it arrived at Black Hills bronze in north Dakota and below are images of the wax process for bronze.
I love this shot of the in-process wax coating of the mold taken by Grant Standard, it looks so surreal. We are looking and a concave image by our minds automatically invert it so that it looks convex!
The wax is born from my silicone mold, to create an investment mold for metal.
This is the ceramic shell in process over the wax. I believe this is the first layer of the investment mold. Note the spews at the bottom of the piece. Those will serve as air vents and the pouring spout.
Here is the completed investment mold. Once the wax is burned out of the mold it is ready for the HOT METAL to be poured!!!!
I love my friend Mike Biasi's comment he made on this image, " Oh the joys of standing in front of a burnout kiln near the crucible while wearing heavy protective gear. Even if its cold outside, those guys are roasting..."
Red Hot MOLD!
It's strange to see these broken mold pieces and know exactly what parts of the sculpture they came from.
Here is a first look at the metal after Grant and his crew cleaned it up a bit. She is a true beauty!
And finally here she is back from chrome plating!! WOW! I cant wait to see this in person. So Excited!!!
DONE! I'm so pleased to have had Grant Standard and his crew do this for me. They did an AMAZING job and I cannot thank them enough. I'm already planing out my next metal piece for next year!
