Sound piece

I am working with AnneP on a sound piece using the bronze-cast and Damascus bowls. It will include other sounds such as part of a Gaelic lullaby from ‘A Kist of Dreams’ and sounds of the sea and coastal birds recorded at Cellardyke. I hope that it will capture some of the spirit of the place.

The sound will be in a cast of a wonderful stone that I found on he beach where Mary of Guise landed in Scotland. I hope that this will be printed in a type of resin that will melt-out of the mould in a ‘lost-wax’ type of process.

Small Damascus bowl

The wee steel bowl in the last post has many incarnations. It has been 3D printed to use as a model for casting in green-sand (in bronze). It was sized up so the Damascus bowl can sit in it.

This is the mesh that was produced.

This is it scaled down and used for a silver and copper mixed metal cast. It sits in the wee bowl.

I have taken wax models of the outside and cast them in bronze using the beach-sand, and I have more wax models for future casts.

There is also a direct cast with tripod legs that I am patinating with seawater, so it is gradually getting greener.

Damascus steel bowl

The wee Damascus steel bowl that has inspired the shape of many of my cast vessels is finally cleaned, finished, etched and sanded back.

I liked it when it held the secret of its patterning:-

This is it after I cleaned the crud off the surface. I tried etching at this stage and was disappointed, until I realized that I needed to cut away the surface to reveal the patterning.

So many hours and cutting discs later it was ready to etch, and this is the final result.

Bronze and Damascus steel spoons

I’ve been casting spoons using my Damascus steel spoons as the models. This picture shows the spoons supported by oil-clay in a mould-box ready to have the beach-sand rammed in around them. When this mould-box is full of compressed sand it is turned over, the oil-clay is removed and a second box is rammed with green-sand. The different sands give different surface textures.

The spoons are cast in bronze. This pic is the furnace, with the tools heating up.

I’ve cleaned the castings and took some photos on the beach this morning.

These are the long-handled spoons.

This is the full set – three Damascus steel and three bronze.