Little metal spiders (in progress)
Finally got ‘em in metal!! (update of the little spiders post)
Still got a long way to go, but…..
-Check out them buns -SHINY!!!
I finally got some time to pour bronze this weekend. (To see a video of my a bronze pour, go here, and click on the “click to play” section) I had four of these little guys, and the mold for blowing glass abdomens. Everything came out smooth, and Beside a few heat contraction tears in the legs, everything poured fine. Here’s a few photos of the process….
First thing, is to grind the bottoms of the shell off, exposing the wax interior. (The wax is about to get melted out in the kiln.)
Here’s a before and after shot of the shells in the kiln. The right side is before lighting the kiln, and left is after firing. You can see that the organic dye that turns them yellow-orange is gone after firing. After firing, I check the shell’s integrity by tapping them. If they have a harmonic “ting” sound, you know the shells are properly vitrified, structurally sound, and ready to pour…
I was too busy during the pour to take any photos, but once the dangerous part is over… viola! Here you can see two spider bronzes and the abdomen mold, with most of the shell cracked off.
Here’s the raw bronze, with all the shell removed. It always looks ugly right out of the shell. (kinda like a newborn, all wrinkly and nasty) The bronze here is oxidized from the rapid cooling, and the parts need to be cut apart, sanded, polished, etc…
Here’s all the parts for one spider, cut up and rough-sanded. From here, I need to start weldin’ stuff together, and then more sandin’ and polishin’…. The photo at the top of this post is of this same spider, after welding the abdomen together, and doing a rough polish. Stay tuned…. I should have some finished photos soon!!!
Tags: bronze, in progress, little spiders!