Finished!

Last night I finally created a patina I really enjoy. I used Liver Of Sulfur as a hot patina on specific parts first: the face, shoulders, and back thighs. Then, I went over everything with a clean Bismuth White coat. I took a paper towel and softly rubbed the spots where I used the black patina to bring out the dark spots more. Wax coated it right away and it left me with a beautiful dark grey and white mixture.

Thanks to everyone who watched the process of sculpting, casting and patination. Tune in soon - there is always more to come!!!

Adam

Royal Agricultural Winter Fair 2011

Hello! This post is a little bit different than the previous ones. I thought I should send out a big "Thank You" to everyone who came and watched me at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair this year. Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm, it was an unbelievable experience, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it. Here are a few photos from the event, as well as two links to videos starring yours truly!

Just another day on the farm

The finished piece(s) all together

Me (with the spokesperson of Gay Lea butter) ready to face the crowd

My mom was kind enough to surprise me at the fair, she came all the way in from Cobourg. Had a great time taking a break from the fridge to give her the tour of the fair. You can see more images at her blog, http://www.somerandomknit.blogspot.com. She took this one of my piece with the 1st place ribbon!

Thanks mom!

 And here are two different videos taken at the fair, starring myself and my two lovely new friends - Shirin and Aramika! Two amazingly talented women who I had the pleasure of spending my weekend with! 

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/video/166165

http://vimeo.com/32270406

Thank you to everyone once again. It was a pleasure. Until next year!!

Cutting the gates + patina samples on hand

Here's another small update. Last week I started grinding the gates off of the piece. My teacher was kind enough to give the class a demo using my piece, so it was one less thing I had to worry about.

Jeff cutting off the first gate

A close-up

Sanding down the piece after cutting the first gate

Jeff sandblasting the piece after sanding

All gates removed with patina samples

 

Thanks for looking!!

Ceramic shell fired + casting finished! (Picture heavy)

Went to school, and the burn out of the wax had already been finished. The ceramic shell was ready to go! Casting was right around the corner!

The fired ceramic shell with my project # tag attached

 

 

The shell is ready for the bronze to be poured

Okay!! So I went to school on the day of the casting to hear that it was already done a few days before, while I was butter sculpting at the Royal Winter Fair (pics to follow). Sadly, that meant that I missed the bronze pour, but it also meant that my piece was ready to be de-vested. Enough talk, onto the photos!!

De-vesting was a success!!!

Wow!!! She survived

The remnants of my ceramic shell

Fresh out of the mold!!

Little shrinkage happened in the process of casting, quite a success

Ready for grinding!

Tune in tomorrow for more updates and patina samples!!!

Final piece + Making the ceramic shell

The larger version beside the smaller version. It has received a much-needed makeover since then

The piece is basically finished now and ready for a gating system

Another angle of the cow

On the final ceramics dip after reinforcing mold with fiberglass strips

Holding the cow over the slurry, getting ready for another dip

In we go

The 9th dip is finished, and the cow is left to dry around a party of fans. The next step is to burn out the wax from the mold, so hopefully next week I'll have some photos of that happening. It should be really exciting. Until then, enjoy photos of the cow drying on a shelf.

Dipped!

My cow along with a few other projects of fellow classmates

Drying

Almost...

So that's all for now folks, but be sure to tune in next time for a few more photos of the completely dry mold as well as the firing stage!

My first bronze sculpture

Hello. I will be using this blog to document my works for you to look at as well as to stay up to date on any project I may be working on.

A few weeks ago, I started working on one of my favorite sculptures to date (that being said, I only started Sculpture this semester, so it's one of the few sculptures I have actually created). I wanted to make something that I could enjoy forever, something I could be emotionally attached to. I chose to sculpt a cow. It is about 1:30 scale. Here are some progress photos.

Sadly I didn't have my camera handy for the entire process so I had to take photos with my webcam. Here are a few more with the legs on their way to completion.

That poor cows legs had to be removed and resculpted

On their way

Me in my studio aka my bedroom

There are still a few more photos I have yet to move to my computer. They will be posted later tonight.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera handy to take photos of my gating system. It may have been fairly simple but it was still very interesting to look at. I will be taking some photos of my ceramic shell today, so stay alert for updates. Thank you for looking.