The Original Bracelet
For the last 3 weeks (in addition to working my day job, trying to create my website, hassling with this blog, getting my portfolio together, and having some semblance of family life I have been taking a casting class at Burke High School with Denis Garrett on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My hopes and dreams for this class? Reconstructing a family bracelet that belonged to my great grandmother, was given to my grandmother by my grandfather, and which was once the lock on our family bible.
Let me give you a little history about the bracelet since this project actually began in April of 2005 and officially start in my pre-blog life. I am going to have to fill in a lot of gaps this way for awhile so here goes…
In April of 2005 Christopher (my better half) and I went to see my grandmother in Canada. We also spent a couple of days in the Art and Design District in Toronto and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the wine vineyards around Niagara. Note to readers…try ice wine…mmm…ice wine. While we were on this trip my grandmother unlocked the safe and showed me the bracelet. Her dilemma? One family bracelet, 4 daughters, even more granddaughters, and what to do.
Why not cast it, I said. Silly me. Casting is for PROFESSIONALS…
So off we went to Michael’s. Yes, they have Michael’s in Canada to buy polymer clay to take molds of the bracelet. I also picked up up a set of clay tools that I completely destroyed while sculpting “Pretty Tied Up.” Note to readers… do not buy inexpensive clay tools from Michael’s for this purpose because they can’t withstand the abuse. So, we were successful and the molds were taken, baked, and packed. They made it safely to Charleston, SC along with 5 bottles of wine from various small Niagara Vineyards …and sat in my studio for over a year waiting (the molds, not the wine).
The first idea was to try precious metal clay. This did not work. Let’s just leave it at that. And so, the molds sat a little longer while I contemplated the options. Then my friend Idee emailed that Dennis was having a casting class and here we are.
The Molds
Week 1 – Class 1 (May 16, 2006):
Found the molds. This was N0T a small feat in itself. I finally figured out what color wax to use (blue, why blue…because Dennis said so). Then I followed Dennis around bugging him to get the wax pot going. I also realized I needed and found the silicone spray. At that point the wax was ready but we could not find a ladle so Dennis MADE one to pour the wax (this is a community education class so sometimes we have to be creative). In the process of trying to figure out how to actually get the wax into the molds before it cooled I burnt the crap out of all my fingers and finally was able to pour the first set of molds …which were no good …and at that point the class was over.
We have a Wax Cast!
Week 1 – Class 2 (May 18, 2006):
Yippee, today I got to start the whole process over again, minus making the ladle which I kept and finding the wax ‘cause I kept a block of that too. I was able to:
*get one set of good molds
*weigh the wax
*see how many grams it weighed
* spend most of my time cleaning up the wax casts using an alcohol lamp and dental tools.
Tedious. Then someone showed me the electric hot pen with multiple tips. Darn, I sure have used that earlier. Class was over for the week but I felt I had made good progress.
Week 2 – Class 1 (May 23, 2006):
Today I realized I had not finished putting the holes in for the o-rings in the bracelet and had to fix that . Then I had to follow poor Dennis around the room asking him what to do next. This led to:
*an explanation about how to attach wax spru’s
*a demonstration on how the canisters fit together
*an all out hunt to find the sticky wax.
I personally never found the sticky wax and used red wax and that lovely hot pen instead but was able to get my bracelet on the tree and inside of a canister. Great…what to do next? I began following Dennis around the room again throwing questions at him while he is trying to help the 6 other students in the class.
Note to self: I have decided that Dennis is a saint in a human body. I also find myself wondering on a regular basis if Geshe Dakpa Topgyal is channeling tranquility to him since the Charleston Tibetan Society is down the street.
So after following Dennis around for awhile we figured out we had to “mix the investment” and that we would have to wait for the next class to start. But that was ok because we had a plan!
Week 2 – Class 2 (May 25, 2006):
So today we found out what “mixing the investment” means. It’s white stuff and it requires:
*math skills
*scales
*powders
*thermometers
*specific water temperatures.
Uh OH! At this point I was painfully aware that I needed to find a buddy. Most studio classes are best done using the buddy system. Without the buddy system in a studio class it is about 99 percent guaranteed you will never get your project off the ground. Why? Studio classes are the breeding ground for general confusion, inexperience, lack of knowledge, lost materials, inexperience in using most tools, and an unfair student to teacher ratio. Gratefully Idee was at the same place I was and also needed a buddy.
HI BUDDY! Happily, she is a wonderful buddy that possesses not only a calm and organized demeanor, but also math skills…Go Idee! So we:
*found all the stuff we needed
*read the directions
*Idee did the math
*mixed 2 batches of investment
*poured the investment into our canisters
*decided we should find Dennis again.
So we followed Dennis around the room again, parroting “we poured the investment what do we need have to do now” until he paid attention to us (I have to say this again. I am not sure why he does this…he must be exhausted when he goes home), and realized we had POURED THE INVESTMENT AND ONLY HAD 9 M1NUTES T0 FINISH and saved us by putting cylinders on the vibraty thing to knock all the air bubbles out. At this point the class was over, we were late getting out, my head was reeling from TOO MUCH MATH, and I am sure Dennis was so ready to go home.
Figuring out the Instructions for the Investment
Mixing the Investment
Pouring the Investment 9 Minutes & Counting!
Dennis Figures Out the Vibraty Thing
Look Ma! No Air Bubbles!
The Weekend Before Week 3
Accepting Silver Donations
I failed to mention that we also had to:
* weigh the piece
*spru and stem attached
*do mental high jinks
*math…lots of math
*figure out how much silver we need
This included converting grams to ounces and adding a percentage for burn off. Idee and I spent way to much time trying to figure this out. I finally gave up and asked Google. Google’s answer? Approximately 7 ounces. So now I knew and off I went hunting for silver. While looking I ran across the original pictures of the bracelet and I thought my head was going to explode. I had forgotten to cut the wax out of the backgrounds and I had put the holes in the wrong places. What to do? I had already poured the investment and Dennis had already put the mold in the kiln over the weekend to melt out the wax. I decided to pour.
Weighing the Piece
Help Me Google!
Week 3 – Class 1 (May 30, 2006):
I got to class late and EVERY FREAKING GATE was padlocked shut and I could not get in. I considered trying to climb over the fence but it has lots of poky things and I was really not dressed appropriately for this type of activity. As I walked around the campus hoping to find an unlocked gate a very sketchy woman who was talking to herself minus her shoes and wearing a red terry cloth bathrobe like a superhero cape kept following me.
I got nervous (It is under debate exactly how safe the neighborhood around Burke is…my opinion is basically if you got the tools/equipment I need to use I’ll go to you and sometimes you wind up in interesting places), tried Idee on her cell phone (didn’t’t get her), and decided to leave. I got two blocks away and Idee called so I turned around and guess who was waiting to let me in…Dennis ( thank you Dennis). I was an hour late. Ok, I thought. I am supposed to do this.
I weighed the silver I had found. We had enough so Dennis put boric acid in the crucible and heated it up. That didn’t work so we went to Plan B (crucible #2). We put the mold into the kiln to heat it up and arranged the workspace. Dennis heated up Plan B crucible and I put the measured silver in. We were off and running. Here’s what happened next:
Dennis blasted the silver (this is amazing to watch), melted it and when it was ready ran over to the kiln
took the mold out and put it in the hole on the vibraty thing.
Guess What? The entire mold PROMPTLY GOES UP IN FLAMES. UH OH. Major equipment malfunction. ALERT…THE SYSTEM HAS EXPERIENCED A MAJOR HIT…STOP EVERYTHING UNTIL THE CRISIS HAS BEEN AVERTED!!! DANGER!
Ok, so we got the crisis resolved and decided it was okay to resume the sequence. Then we realized that the silver has solidified so we had to re-melt the silver. When it was ready we began to pour it into the mold and ran into another system error. The vibraty thing is not producing suction …Operator (Dennis) about to explode …Minus ten and counting …Bystander (me) completely in the way.
Coating the Crucible with Boric Acid
7 Ounces of Silver in Plan B
I’m Meeelting…
Getting Ready to Pour
Right Before the System Malfunction
After the crisis had been averted Dennis and I agreed that this did not work. We put the mold on the shelf to cool so we can reclaim the silver next week. We also agreed that it might be a good idea if Dennis contacted the manufacturer for more specific instructions on how to use the vibraty thing. Where are we? 0 to 60 in 6 minutes. Thursday I have to bring the molds, find the wax, find the ladle (I gave it back), get the wax pot, pour the molds, clean up the molds, mix the investment, weigh the piece, do the math, melt the silver, and try again. Why? Because this bracelet has a mind of its own and does not want to be made any differently than it is …OK ..I GET IT. I will make the bracelet correctly. I’ll keep you posted. Same bat place, same bat time…
