Emerging artist in residence SSW Week 3

I had a successful firing of my new furnace and made this beautifully coloured tumbler. I think the colour is partly from the sand-mix from Auchindour which has iron in it.

The furnace set up

After the pour

opening the sand box

I also cut back a large bowl that hadn’t cast fully and achieved a perfectly acceptable bowl, which I textured and patinated.

patinating with ferric nitrate

close up

I textured and patinated my sound stone from ‘Mary of Guise’ beach:

Also a Cellardyke sand tumbler got finished (texture and patina). May still work on the sparkle factor:-

I used the Auchindour sand to cast a wee silver piece to sit in the copper ‘goblet’ made in Week 2:

And this pour also gave a lovely piece of ‘waste’ for my collection of pieces to be developed into wearables.

the wee bowl and casting waste

I did a lot of editing of the to-do list, but all in all a very productive three weeks.

Thanks to Eden and everyone at SSW

SSW Emerging artist in residence week 2

Week two saw the completion of my mobile furnace.

This was made in an old gas cylinder – spent a morning filling it with water and then emptying it again to make sure all the gas was out. Then I cut it up to give it a lid and holes for air. Finally I lined it with clay and dried it out.

These are the chaps playing about with a gas flame thrower to dry out the clay. (George, Eden and Uist)

The first firing was a bit of a learning process, I struggled to keep the charcoal out of the crucible and I found that two blowers cooled the crucible and blew the charcoal about.  The pic shows two blowers going into my wee furnace. I made the housing for the blower on the right too. I managed to pour a small part of a rim,

it is a very pretty colour.

I used a horse-poo-mix crucible lid, which was pretty successful, but it melted a bit, so I’m not sure I’d use it for a crucible. I rather like it though.

Eden and Uist are making a temporary sauna and have whisky barrel staves for cladding. I thought these would make a good local sandbox material and cut the pieces for a small box that will make a spoon mould. This is it screwed together and ready to use.

Uist did a copper pour (he and Ben had pieces to cast) I added in a couple of sand ring moulds as I don’t like to miss a pour.

This shows the two wee bowls cast in copper and a mass of copper that mis-poured into the sand pit. I am keeping that for enameling sometime.

Emerging Artist in Residence SSW week 1

I have had one week of my residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden. It has been great fun, learning from the masters – George Beasley and Eden Jolly, talking with other artists – Fanny, Uist, Cat and Ben among others and joining in some local activities.

I have found a local sand that seems to be naturally occurring casting sand,

This is the spot where I found the sand/clay in tree roots at Auchendoir. The mixture comes about because of glacial and stream activity and the roots keep the leaf mould out. Some of it only needs riddling to remove stones.It should make good sand moulds for casting.

I made some trial crucibles using local sand and horse poo

There are 2 crucible recipes from the book Legacy that I tried; and the horse poo is from the trout farm at Mossat (they also have livestock). I will try pre-firing some and heating the others in the furnace.

We’ve had some great weather so I have been out walking and cycling in the area to gather inspiration.

This is Tap o North, my camera shutter was playing up, but I like the skyline..

I am looking for design ideas for bells, maybe fungi will work.