“It’s time to go big!”
This week, I spent my time spruing up some larger pieces of bark (roughly 1ft in height) in our foundry waxroom at University!
It has been so exciting to make a start on some larger scale work – as I’ve been itching to do all summer! Although, I’m still starting relatively small for this first cast, so that I can judge the technicalities without risking some of the best pieces of bark that I have collected.
After some discussion with the technicians about the burn out process, we decided that coating the back of the bark in a thin layer of wax would potentially aid the burning, encouraging the best results.
These layers were applied with completely molten wax and a brush:
The spruing became a little complex at times, because I am working with a fairly unpredictable material, with difficult shapes. I had to make sure there were enough sprues on each piece, so that the bronze will reach all spaces in my ceramic shell, and provide me with a full, successful cast.
The individual spruing took me a whole day – which was a lot slower than I initially thought it would be, however I think this part of the process will speed up once I become more confident with the technique.
I just thought I would share with you a little time lapse of me working – as it is a bit more interesting for you to see – and might make sense of the process a little more for some of you:
I am also working on a full length youtube video of me working in the foundry waxroom – so keep an eye out on my channel for that!
I have come away with lots of notes for the next tree I sprue up – but hopefully I have done enough for this one to cast well!
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I shall post again once it’s been poured, and share my results with you!
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