Process : Foundry

Pouring melted glass or metal into a mold is a spectacular process. Glass pours like honey, glows brilliantly as it cools and the finished object is amazingly fragile and strong, cold and warm, sterile and light encompassing. Iron explodes like fireworks when drips hit the ground. My first iron pour was an exhausting community effort with a crew of artists setting up the pouring site over a weekend and pouring close to a ton of 3200 degree metal. I am at my happiest working with these two materials.

The wax studio at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden, Scotland. A “tree” of waxes is seen sprued up on the right.

 

First a wax model is made of the work. After finishing the piece, the artist must decide if the foundry mold will be ceramic shell, sand or plaster investment.

 

Ceramic shell molds waiting to be deinvested of wax in a kiln. The process fires the molds and they turn white.

 

Finished wax pieces ready to sprue up for the ceramic shell process to be cast in Aluminum.

 

Sand molds ready to pour in the foundry.

 

Cupola to pour iron at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. Artist Eden Jolly is seen at left.

 

A whole crew is necessary to have a successful pour. This is an iron pour with faculty and students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

A pour team pouring iron from a two man ladle.

 

Just poured sand molds.

 

After pouring aluminum into the ceramic molds, the mold must be cracked off with a hammer and chisel. Then the sprues are cut off, the piece chased with power and hand tools, and finished by adding additional found objects and / or a patina (coloration).