Road Trip

At Dawn and Joe's house tonight. Playing with little Annalise before I head off to bed. Heading out to Phoenix with sculptures and golf clubs in the car. I'll post some pictures along the way.

Tooting My Own Horn

Thanks to Curt Brown for this nice article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today.
Sunrises on the North Shore sustain artist

More Art Summit/ Office Shaman

Art Summit

I'm back blogging again after loosing my last computer, well, I didn't loose the computer just everything on it.

Here are some images of new work I will be showing at the Art Summit. A small group show and sale at 301 Summit Ave. St. Paul on Saturday November 13, 2-10 PM. Hope to see you there.

Tofte Fish Project

This is ceramic shell coat #9 on the lake trout. One more coat of the slurry, let dry, de-wax, Vitrify molds at 1800 degrees for an hour, check the molds for cracks, patch if needed, pour bronze into the molds, chill, break off the mold material, cut off the extra metal, design and manufacture a system for mounting, sand blast, patina, and finally wax the finished bronzes. Then build the net that the fish will be mounted to.....see, nothing to it.

Tofte Fish Project

Finishing up a project to be installed in the park in Tofte overlooking Lake Superior. The idea is to show life sized fish that inhabit the lake along with some reference to the people who fish commercially for our Lake Superior species.
The picture shows the beginning of the casting mold making process. I have five herring made in wax from molds I took of actual fish. The big one is a lake trout. This is what they look like after the first coat of the refractory mold material. 9 more coats to go.

Here is the trout with the second coating, called a stucco coat there is a fine sand added to the matrix of mold material. 8 more coats to go. This will take several days to accomplish.

Celebrating the Art of Living

Join Last Chance Studio and Gallery this evening for the opening of "Celebrating the Art of Living" featuring the work of Artists whose work adds meaning to our lives.
Legacy Urns and Commemorative Art; Tom Christiansen
Fiber Art and the "Tao of Foolishness"; Korey Thompson
"A Few Last Words: Your Guide to the Art of Self Memorializing" ; Author and Painter, Jack Becker
Ritual Pots; Kristi Downing
Intentional and Legacy Jewelry; Kim Vorel
Opening reception tonight 5 to 7
Saturday 10 to 5 with presentations through out the day.

Fabricated Urn

"Soaring"

This one I call "Soaring Over the Wheat Field". For some reason that is what came to mind while I was forging the bronze plates. The star is nickel silver.

More Urns

As I have been working on urns the past two weeks it is amazing to hear how many people have ashes in a cardboard box. This one is more permanent.

This one I call "Lifeline"

This is "Sun and Moon" or.....

"Moon and Sun" the opposite side of  "Sun and Moon". Please join us at Last Chance on Friday, August 13th for a reception from 5 to 7 opening "Celebrating the Art of Living"
We are featuring the work of Kim Vorel, Jack Becker, Kristi Downing and me.
Saturday 10 till 5 presentations by the artists and more. www.lastchancefab.com

Urns

As long as I'm working on urns I thought I would post a picture of one I did years ago for Marcia's dog Spot. Spot's ashes are still in a cardboard box but the urn sits on Marcia's desk. Always a reminder of her beloved pet.

Next I will be working on urns from cardboard patterns. Might as well make a permanent card board box.

Good Pour

The two urns poured well today. I plan to do a patina that will make these objects look ancient.

Legacy Art, Making Urns

My friend and colleague Paul Linden turned two wood patterns for me to try for urn shapes. This process is a bit more complicated than most of the molds I make so I thought I would post a fer pictures to show you how this works.

Pattern and the two halves of the mold. I cut in embellishment directly into the sand mold. Sun and Moon and Star symbols.

 Here the core is inserted into the mold, the three marks on top are the sprue and two vents. The sprue allows metal to flow in, the vents allow air to flow out.

The other mold nearly ready to assemble. I will try to pour these two tomorrow.

Tangletown Garden and Art Tour

Loaded up at 5 AM in the rain to head to St. Paul

Love Seat on the sidewalk

Blue Horse and a bronze horse in the yard. They always look better away from my studio.

44" Bronze Horse

Sprite in the back yard. This was a one day event, lots of intrest, as of yet, no sales. Ahhh, the life of the artist, it's glamorous.

Another assembled horse

Inspired by Deborah Butterfield, this horse is made from bronze scraps. It is 5.5 inches tall, 8.5 inches long. After doing a large cast piece I enjoy doing something more spontaneous, just picking through the scrap bin and making something fun.

The bench is finished. I took this image right after I finished the patina. It always bothers me to do this because in a few days the patina matures to a more even color. Months later it is even more rich looking. But, I usually have to ship them out right away as is the cast with this bench. Fed Ex Freight is on the way to pick it up and deliver it to it's new home in Michigan.

This is a close up of the newspaper the man is holding.

Pouring the bench

This is the mold for the newspaper one figure will hold. If you look carefully there is an imprint of the New York Times headline. The other print is just color imprinted into the mold and won't show in the finished bronze.

In the foundry we bury the molds to make it safer to pour. The hole is 3.5 feet deep.

Ready to Pour.

Lifting out the crucible. 

Pouring the first mold.

Finished pouring, now to open the molds to see if it all worked as planned.

Molds ready to pour

Here is part of the largest mold for the bench. This shows the sprue method I use to introduce metal into the pattern.

These are the 3 big molds for this bench, the seat and the 2 back sections. 9 molds in all. We will be pouring these tomorrow.

Here is a mold opened up, it has two cardboard patters in it for legs for the bench. In the top right of the picture you can see molds that are ready to pour.

The patterns are removed and I have cut channels into the mold to allow the bronze to flow into the pattern and there are vents to allow the air to evacuate the mold quickly.

The mold is now glued and banded together. When hot metal is poured in there is a great deal of pressure trying to force the two halves of the mold apart. This bench will require 8 molds weighing about 1600 lbs.

Pattern

Here is the man half of the bench set up in the mold flask. My toes show in the right side of the frame to give an idea of scale. I used real buttons and a bow and string for the glasses in the pocket. It doesn't show well but this pattern is bent in the mold to round the back and the shoulder is bent back. A little more complicated than the regular flat molds. 150 lbs. of resin bonded sand covers this pattern now, the sand has to cure overnight.

Resin Bonded Sand Molds

1100 pounds of sand later, these molds are cured.

Patterns set up for sand molds

New Bench Project

Weezie Bradach called me a while back after seeing an article about my benches in Lake Superior Magazine.
She commissioned a bench for her parents to go to their family cabin in Michigan.

This is the FUN in FUNctional Art

Here is another "Life of the Party"

Fun and Functional, or is that Funktional

"Life of the Party" is a bronze figure cast from a cardboard pattern. The penis is the switch. This is a floor lamp, 6 feet 4 inches tall. I'm working on new pieces for our "Fun in Functional Art" Show coming up July 4th weekend. Hope you can make it here.

Summer Work

It's nice to be working at the studio with the doors open. Here is a new bronze horse 44" tall, just finished today.

Peace Church

Peace Church project is finished! Todd Signs came to do the installation and after a little slipping and sliding they got the truck in position. thanks to Gail Blum for the pictures.