SCULPTURE 251
In my Sculpture class this semester, my professor gave us a lot of freedom when it came to what we wanted to create and offered to teach us any techniques that we wanted to learn in relation to the projects we chose. I chose to pursue a route in architecture where I wanted to make a set of intricately carved, ornate doors. Although I did not finish my project this semester, I am very proud of the amount of work that I got done. Completing the construction of the doors themselves was very fun, time-consuming, and challenging. I was able to apply my artistic skills as well as my mathematical mindset in a way that I had never experienced before. My knowledge of the tools in the wood shop is now very extensive and I feel very confident wood carving, modeling in wax, shelling, and even pouring molten bronze! Because the weather was unfortunately not nice enough to cast for several weeks, I was unable to finish my door knockers which I am so eager to grind, file, and polish to create a movable element/interactive element in my doors. I am also ecstatic to come in and work next semester and my senior spring semester in Advanced Sculpture and finish this project for my senior show.
Overall, I learned an unbelievable amount in this class and can’t wait to take more sculpture classes my senior year. Not only do I feel confident in so many areas in the sculpture studio, but I even feel comfortable helping other students with their work. It’s also nice to know that I am able to finish this piece in the time it deserves.
The doors themselves tell the Greek myth of how the seasons were created with Demeter and Persephone. In each carved panel will be Demeter and in the bronze cast door knockers, they contain pomegranates and pomegranate seeds.
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Glueing panels in preparation for cutting and shaping to fit in door rails and styles.
After casting door knockers and a center piece I needed to break the shell off in order to begin working on the bronze.
After breaking off all the shell on my pieces I sand blasted my pieces to determine where I needed to solder stress fractures prior to cutting the gates off the piece.
This picture was taken right before we began the shelling process immediately after the pieces were dipped in lacquer.
I am the student on the right hand side on the live end of the pour!
This was my first major completion on my doors! The rails are 5 feet long and the wood I chose to use is walnut.
This is what my knocker will look like in bronze after all the gates are cut off and polished. This image also includes the knocker already attached. Featuring a pomegranate to allude to the Myth of the seasons.
Preparing the support for the raised panels to ensure that no warping will take place during the drying process.
The dark purple wax is my actual piece that I will be attaching onto my doors, and the red wax is my gating system. This is a good image to show how intricate and detailed the gating system needed to be in order for the bronze to flow into all the cavities in the shell.