I am currently working on a wax that will eventually be cast in bronze. The idea for this piece came from working with plaster molds on 3 earlier pieces. The first was a *ceramic piece, 'Stair Triptych'. It consisted of 3 separate sections that incorporated a combination of Escher-like stairs and doorways that were juxtaposed at various angles. This led me to the thought of making a bronze piece that combined a series of similar units. I modified the design of the 3 stair modules and cast 3 new molds to use for making multiple waxes. The result was my *bronze, 'Relief '. The molds were utilzed again in making the base for my *bronze piece 'Stilt Walker '. Even as I completed these earlier works, the concept for this current piece was formulating in the back of my mind....bend these modules into a sphere.
  | I am now about halfway through the construction of the wax sphere. The wax modules are hollow and have flat bottomed sides when they come out of the mold. I bend them gently around a basketball while they are still warm and cut the bottom edges into gentle curves to improve the fit. I also trim the edges so that each piece on the sphere will be at a slightly different angle. Then comes the very slow process of attaching the modules to each other. Now that I am halfway through this process, I will not be able to use the basketball as a framework to work on, and the attachment process will get a bit trickier. The final challenge will come when I finish the sphere and have to start gating it... multiple angles and overhangs - yikesI *Images of the above mentioned artworks can be found in the Clay & Bronze Sculpture sections of this website. |
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