Celebrating 10 years of Digital Innovation
Latest
Professional Practice | A Week of Wax, Plaster-of-Paris, Allsorts More with Molten Bronze to Boot
[ REVIEW ]
A Week of Wax, Plaster-of-Paris, Allsorts More with Molten Bronze to Boot | Work Experience at Castle Fine Arts Foundry, Llanrhaeadr, Powys, Wales.
31st January – 4th February 2011.
Review by Alexandra Carus Bowker
I set off from Lancashire, down through Chester and over the border into North Wales. I was due to start a week of work experience at Castle Fine Arts Foundry, who specialise in Bronze Casting for Sculptors. The reason that I applied for work experience was because I wanted to further my understanding and technical knowledge of bronze foundry work, in the hope that one day I would be able to incorporate what I had learnt in to the creation of my own work.
There was a time however, when I was unsure whether I would get there at all! Beware of B-roads! The way the GPS took me was a never-ending windy road, up hill and down dale. It was a single track road, full of pot-holes, mounds of dirt and it had a very uneven surface that had a tendency to disappear from view in a split second! Navigating in the pitch black, with no signal, on your own, is not nearly as much fun as you would think! I can definitely say, however, that the week ahead was well worth my misguided detour!
Castle Fine Arts Foundry, established in 1990, is now one of the UK’s leading arts foundries, producing the work of artists who have created a huge range of sculpted pieces, from some of our most important pieces of public art sculpture, through to smaller, highly finished gallery work. They also continue to run their bronze casting courses at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Some of the team are practising sculptors in their own right, so to speak with them was really insightful.
Their Mission Statement :
“Working together as a strong team, our vision is to make Castle Fine Arts Foundry the artist’s choice for bronze casting services in the UK; trusted to produce work of the highest quality, on time and at a competitive price.
We aim to create a business where all staff and clients fee a valued part of the company’s success. Through our commitment to developing our people we aim to make Castle Fine Arts Foundry the industry benchmark for customer service, working practices, training and profitability.
Through our marketing, training and open approach to business we will strive to raise the profile of our craft and create opportunities to make ‘art casting’ more accessible and available to all.” (www.bronzefoundry.co.uk, 2011)
At first, I wasn’t too sure with what to expect. For obvious reasons, you can’t just create and produce art through bronze casting, in your average studio. Although it is quite easy to read up on such things, to actually go and experience the workings of a foundry allows you to form a much better understanding of all the different processes, not least because each foundry might have different types of facilities and therefore services that they can provide differ. Thus, to ‘read up’ on foundry work is to barely scratch the surface.
I initially started in the Mould-Making department, ready to get my hands dirty, (or rather caked in Plaster-of-Paris, clay and rubber!) I have always enjoyed the intensity that comes with things such as mould-making. The importance of a high quality mould is essential as, “The quality of the original mould will influence the whole casting process” (Castle Fine Arts Foundry | Work Experience Pack). So, you could say that there is a fair amount of pressure to get things right from the off.
This basically set the tone for the rest of the processes, with a huge emphasis on ‘thinking ahead’. Greater thought and more accuracy at each step along the way to creating any individual piece, meant a higher success rate with regard to its completion and in the quality of its final outcome. It also meant that there would be less work needed at any subsequent stage, (for example, fewer amendments or corrections). To build something up or fix or fill in any dents and flaws is much easier to do whilst still working in wax than it is later in metal work.
In the wax stages, particularly the “running up”, I was amazed at the planning which went into working out where the bronze would and wouldn’t be able to get to easily: where more runners might need to be added to enable the metal to flow into every part of the sculpture, making sure that the runners were connected to all the necessary high and low points.
Before you go to the foundry, you can request a block of wax (to sculpt into whatever you want to – great fun!) and then take along. I was able to understand some of the processes even more, as the team talked me through the different stages again, using the sculpture that I had created in the wax as an example. (This was probably because I knew every inch of it so could better understand the points that they were explaining to me.)
I would love to go back again (I certainly intend to do so!) and build on everything I learnt during my week there. Although I was unable to take my piece home with me at the time, I am really looking forward to seeing it as a lump of bronze, and will hopefully get to go back and finish the metal work and patination myself.
A huge thank-you to all at Castle Fine Arts Foundry!
Alexandra Carus Bowker is a freelance visual artist and designer based at AWOL Artist’s Studios, Manchester. She is a BA (Hons) graduate of Fine Art Integrated Media now commencing her MA at University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts in Visual Arts | Digital Arts.
Exhibition | British Museum
the book of the dead
Exhibition | TATE Britain
talk about seen – as seperates or individual posts?!?!?
Exhibition | TATE Modern
talk about seen – as seperates or individual posts?!?!?
Exhibition | Royal Academy
talk about seen – as seperates or individual posts?!?!?
Candidate for Arts London NUS Delegate
I am running for Arts London NUS Delegate!
If you’re a UAL Student and ‘Like’ My Manifesto:
[ http://suarts.org/candidates/content/694883/candidate_positions/alexandra_carus_bowker ]
Please follow the link to vote:
[ http://www.suarts.org/vote ]
Thank!
Alexandra Carus Bowker
xX*
UAL | SUArts | Green Week 2011
- general about – volunteering
- exhibition with preview
- sustainable fashion show
- create late – smells like green spirit
- those involved – interviews to follow
Exhibition | The House of Fairy Tales | Published Review
This Review was published in LanArts monthly newsletter on 10.12.2010
[ REVIEW ]
The House of Fairy Tales Exhibition
| Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston (Until 31 December)
Review by Alexandra Carus Bowker
Situated on the top floor, in the far back upper tier of the Costume Gallery at
the Harris Museum and Art Gallery is an absolute treat!
Fairy tales are metaphors and moral barometers as well as engaging and
entertaining stories which have been passed down through the oral Read the rest of this page »
