Tri-State Sculptors Iron Pour in Greensboro

With the help of a couple inches of snow closing down the entire city of Greenville I was able to get into the studio and bust out a sculpture. I went through the whole clay into plaster into wax into sand into iron route....if ya know what I mean. I'm very happy because I went from clay to iron in about a week and a half. This is a very fast turnaround for a cast metal piece of this size....at least for me. 

 Here are some pictures I took at the TriState Sculptors Iron Pour. 

If you are into Sculpture or 3D kinda work, metalworking/ceramics/installation/whatever, you should think about joining and making TriState awesome. Anyways, I took a 350lb sand mold to this pour and ended up with a great casting. 

Jim Gallucci showing sodium silicate sand molding. Check out the ECU crew in the background.

I ended up feeding the furnace and found time to take most of the photos.

That's Trey Martin on the right.

That's my baby. 55lbs of red-hot iron!

Promotion of TriState

Carl Billingsley fire-dancing. 

Carl Billnglsey totally losing his mind as he fervently dances to the IRON GOD.

Iron-Age Re-enactor Carl Billingsley eyes the furnace in anticipation of the liquid gold.

The time is added on the side for when iron is added.

Billingsley's piece.

My casting came out so well, I am happy as a clam.

Skull, myself, and an old man. What does it mean? Regeneration. Death comes for all. We all die. We all live on in the materials of the earth.

Its about 3feet high right now and I plan on mounting it on a 6 foot high sculpture. So it will be a component to an outdoor sculpture. I learned a few things from doing this piece.

• Sculpting in water-clay is faster than oil-clay. 
• Still got the foundry mold-making skillz.
• Iron is an awesome material. 
• Iron Pours, which can be annoying with all the masculine assholes yelling at each other, are a great way to make art via a defined deadline.
• I made a similar sculpture in grad school circa 2010, only very very tiny. I should have been making them all BIG!

I should add more posts to this blog. My new mantra for 2014 is "Make Art Everyday" and I think I've been holding it up fairly well. 

Have a nice day = namaste.