Adventures in the Foundry and New Print

I'd like to announce that this last Tuesday, Nov. 17, I participated in my first real art show! "Real" here meaning one that I was not just in because my whole class was required to participate in it. Unfortunately, I did not take a single picture! Maybe because I was too distracted by the free snacks or maybe because I was too cold to think straight. I am still kicking myself for that. 

In other news, I've been creating a little trophy for myself, as part of a sculpture class, not because I'm that full of myself. The interesting part though is that we are metal casting! Using a found object we made a silicone mold which made a wax cast which made a sand mold which will make a bronze cast. Very simple, I know. 

This is the silicone mold, encased in plaster for stability. In it I poured liquid wax. An old tire is holding that mold together, such advanced technology. 

After using the wax casting to make a sand mold, we had to melt the wax out of the pour-cup, which is basically a funnel for the molten metal later. A bunch of us students went to do this without anyone supervising us and it was both hilarious and nerve wracking. 

This is the sand mold after it was fired in order to melt the rest of the wax off and strengthen the mold. It looks a bit weird right now but it's a pill bottle attached to the pour-cup. 
     

And finally! Pouring in molten metal into these thin molds. It was amazing to watch people handle a F 2000+ degree liquid. 

After the metal hardens and cools I will break off the mold with a hammer and clean up my piece with a sandblaster. I have a base ready for it too. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of next week!

Moving on to printmaking, I finished another set of prints. Here is the final product:

This print was a lot of fun to make and the end result is amazing! For this assignment we were supposed to purposefully break the rules of printmaking, which include having good registration (alignment), clean boarders, using printmaking paper, etc. People got really creative with this, printing on magazine pages or fabric, some are combining mediums by painting on their prints with watercolor. 

I decided to keep the idea of a print still, but mess with the borders and registration. When I explained my idea to my professor she was skeptical to say the least, and watched me print with worried look in her face. And today she she told me it was "fabulous"! It's so nice when things go my way. I'm so proud of this print. 

And since I only messed up a couple of prints of the 10 I originally made, I have 3 left over to experiment with. I'm going to try a couple of different colors and also try printing the background off registration. I will do that this Wednesday and try to post the pictures the same day. Here is one I had just enough time to do before class ended. 

I think the teal background works better than this faded yellow one, but it's still interesting. 

Bye for now!