In case you were wondering....

....what's going on in sculptureland.

Right now, I have a headache, so I am taking a break and documenting.

Tuesday evening, we (my student aide and I) poured bronze parts for the giant Lazy Bee/Cow. (No pictures of that, sorry, but you seen one molten metal pour, you pretty much get the idea. Unless there is a steam explosion). I hammered off the shell and found only a heat-tear on the tentacles, which is when the metal cools and shrinks, but the ceramic shell investment does not, and shears the metal. I chased and cleaned the figures of surface defects and blisters and zits and oxide shit. Sandblasted all the parts and called it quits about 11pm.

What's today? Right, Wednesday. Did I mention all this grinding and such outside in the patio area? Classes were in session.

Temp was about 15-16F most of the day. About 3pm classes got done and I moved into the wood shop.

I took over a table in the wood shop

That was nice, coming in from the cold, but I got to tell you, that arctic air sure is sweet smelling and fresh. Anyway, I repaired the heat-tears on the tentacles by welding them and  grinding down the welds. Finished surface cleaning on the figures. 

Stuff laid out in parts to be welded tomorrow

To give you an idea of the junk I use...

Air die-grinders for finesse work.

I welded the pushing man's hat on, and ground down the weld with a right angle grinder.

Pushing man needs just the hat worked on

Weld ground down and you can see some spatter on the hat

 Welded the Lazy Bee/Cow's cowl onto it's body, and ground down the weld spots. I will use the air die grinders to clean up all the spatter and make the surfaces seamless.

Cowl welded to body and welds ground down

I have to weld pulling guy and the tentacle onto the tentacle part of Lazy Bee/Cow. Naturally, they did not fit, so I hammered and bent parts on everything until they did fit together.

Lazy Bee/Cow in parts.

Pulling guy needs a few more adjustments, and then I will weld those together.

Pulling guy ready to have hat welded on.

I still have a headache. I'm going to go home and drink ice water. More work tomorrow after sculpture class is done at noon.