Casting gorgeous wee cottages

 

I got time over the last couple of days to cast some wee pewter traditional cottages with chimneys   - see above; as well as finishing 10 more leaves on stalks - see below.

The cottages are cast in sand that I have pressed moulds into. There are two sizes - 3cm long X 2cm high; and 18mm long X 18mm high - hence different containers to put the sand in etc as you can see below.

I usually heat the recycled pewter metal to about 750 degrees to allow impurities to burn off and give myself plenty of time to pour. Most times a small stream of smoke appears as the hot metal burns the oil in the casting sand.

As you can see above the cottages come out with sand and soot clinging to the metal. A clean with a fine brass brush gets rid of the sand and soot. A couple more photos of the finished cottages follow.

If you look closely you can see the casting sand imprint on the metal. Every wee cottage is unique because of how the metal reacts with the sand, the temperature and how well I'm pouring the metal.

Leaves, patina and rust

 

What is not to celebrate about this smaller sculptural piece (about 60cm wide X 55cm high) - hand formed recycled copper leaves, copper patina and rust on half of an old pulley wheel. See fully assembled piece below with a hard wood base.

The leaves are riveted to the mild steel stalks or stems with copper rivets - yes the stems will rust in the outdoors.

Couple of other process photos on the workbench.

And a photo at the front door in blazing sunlight.

A lovely addition to the Bending Series.

Small metal boats and patinated leaves

 Creativity has taken a couple of forms over the weekend - finishing some small metal boats; and making a couple of stashes of larger copper leaves.

The finished boats are in the opening photo; and a couple of process photos below.

I'm making two sets of copper leaves: one set from cleaner meta; and one set from heavy and brown patinated metal from an old copper washing boiler. Photo of the ones from the cleaner metal is below - patinated and ready for final grind before going into DEP shop.

 on stalksThe second set will become a Bending sculptural piece - with 15 leaves. Process photos follow.

Mixed bag of a weekend but good outcomes. 

Metal and stone

 

I have completed 5 small sculptural pieces that combine formed recycled metal and stone or cement. One of the 5 pieces in fact has 3 metal forms attached to a very hard polished stone - see above - photo of the piece sitting on a ledge in front of my anvil.

As you can see from the process photo below quite a few of the metal forms have some beautiful brass and rainbow highlights on their back surfaces.

The photo below shows me drilling into the base of the form so that 1.5mm brass rod can be hammered and glued into the form to use to attach to the stones and cement. The third photo is one of the pieces in the sun to help the glue to dry - the metal forms needed to be propped up with some pieces of wood.

Following are a number of photos off the pieces.

These small sculptures will probably head over to Scotland.

Pouring a village

I cut a cottage form into a 50mm cube of graphite. The goal was to pour a small number of cottages that could become a small refection of stone cottages that were built by Highland families after they were cleared from their lands.

The photo above shows 7 that I have poured - maybe enough for a small post-clearance village? The original cast is shown in the photo below.

When I was removing the original cast from the mould, the mould developed a small crack. I did further work on the mould to make it easier to remove the cast cottage. But a chip broke off the mould when I did the first cast of the 7 in the opening photo. Not to be deterred I worked out that I could hold the chip in with a clamp - but needed to get the clamp off quickly as the graphite heated up and wanted to melt the plastic jaws of the clamp.

Still I managed to get my 7 cottages poured; and have kept the mould!!!

As I was pouring pewter recycled from Selangor beer mugs (lead free pewter) I decided I'd pour a few more hull forms - I like the rainbow colours on some.

I still need to trim the excess metal off the castings; and give some a wee grind.

Rushed and rudimentary

 

I didn't have buckets loads of time for the shed-workshop today; and I probably was aiming to overachieve!!! Anyway I set myself a few tasks: testing to see how well some pewter I bought from and op-shop would melt; and see if I could carve a wee cottage into a graphite block; and on the very outside see if I could do a pour of the cottage.

From the photo above (bit out of focus) you can see I carved and poured a very rudimentary pewter cottage. A few process photos follow.

I had bought a number of Selangor Pewter mugs from an op-shop -  so I did a melt and a couple of pours while I was carving the graphite to see how easily it melted and poured - see below.

One thing I learnt about the pewter ids that it tends to bind to the graphite a bit. The graphite mould might work well if I take the time to smooth a few edges etc in the carving - but that is for next week I think. The cottage is about 32mm long, 20mm high and 19mm wide.

Studio sale - 25% off all items

 

Our 25% off studio sale at Deckled Edge Press studio-gallery is on tomorrow (Saturday 19 Nov 10am-4pm); so today was all about setting up.

The sale will include some of my sculptural work (see photo above and below), new works (including small metal boats and the sculptural form Poised), and some old favourites like my pendants and earrings, leaf forms, Daily Leaf Word sets, vessels and cement pieces.

Photos of some of the sculptural pieces that will be for sale, including a new cube and an Artisan Lamp, can be seen below.

A couple of the new pieces.

Some of the old favourites.

And Daily Leaf Word sets and silver-plated bowls.

Everything in the online shop is also for sale at 25% off on the sale day; but not everything in the physical shop is online. To get your 25% discount on the online shop items enter the coupon code STUDIOSALE22 at checkout.

Hoping friends and supporters can pick up a pre Christmas bargain.

We are also doing a fund raiser for Maleny Neighbourhood Centre (MNC) - all framed items and paper sample packs on our special fundraiser table will be 50% off - all proceeds from the sale of these table items will be donated to MNC. Another chance to pick up a bargain; and at the same time support this great local service.