DESIGNING REPORT...

Like this explosion of grass in the garden I celebrate finishing what must sufice for the season's new design train.

THREE NEW BELL DESIGNS: SEA HORSE; SUFI-SURF; CLOUD PALACE

Making hundreds of photographs, I continue to learn how the camera communicates with the computer images I hope show how I see these waxes which might or might not survive the next trial by foundry fire... there is always that chance. My memory launches into the archiave of stories which one day will prove my age in some version of Hephaestian myth, but I do understand & appreciate that all my work thus far rests its reliable birth from this gestation into mastery toward gently evolved production.

Many elusive stages toward reality... flipping from postitive to negative as plaster molds accrue around my waxes to resist the melting of all my work, holding in shadow form the nuance to be translate the heft of liquid silver gelling quick to crystaline metal hard what the wax had been.

Still, I invite you to look again into the small surficial depths of this ephemeral state where I play to work...

The SEA HORSE Bell design has been shown in several previous states in recent postings. Here then are that wax's formal portraits.



This shot shows a clearer viewpoint under harder light...



Today I reluctantly dissasembled these bells for the last time to attach the sprues which are necessary for casting. Sprues are the wax wires which will provide channels for the molton metal. The SEA HORSE Bell's very flexible clapper is a complexity of three jointed parts, which are sprued together in a trident for effeciency. This will be an expensive bell for such nicities.

I look forward to seeing this bell in production... organic surfaces like this can be problematic in finishing--easily losing subtle detail & becoming "mushy". Still... I know an original problem with this idea was the critter's inherant rigidity. This becomes a consumate dance...



Now they are packed in foam inside a metal tin, ready for the trip to the foundry tomorrow.



I begin to experience some sort of "post partum" blues, as I watch myself pushing them away into our next stages. "My children" will be back with more need of attentions as I polish them out to be ready for the molding process... after casting...

Casting, very like chickens, is not something one can count on before...

What the language of lost wax casting describes is that the wax model, encased in a plaster mold is melted out... lost... in order to provide space for one moment of truth at precise temperatures, designed with gently efficient flow to accommodate such a thrust of molten metal to replace it, cooling to translate my wax form into security.

Certainly a birth of sorts.

I will be on edge until I see that transformation. There are many stories about the vicissitudes of casting in my history. There is little play in this field without coming to some acceptance toward something zen. I have experienced many personal failures in this process during the years I was doing my own casting. In a process so complex as this one can ultimately only accept whatever the outcome.

One dances prayers for grace.

Stephen will play courier for these & will pick up an order of finished bronze bells, completing my stock for the upcoming Open Studio weekends May 5, 6, 12, 13.

Grazie Mon Chere...