High temperature art | Tragic Comedy

Well today was Bronze day......we poured liquid metal.....I made a belt buckle and a pendant for my wife very fun and just a bit scary...I'm the one pulling the crucible out of the blast furnace. Chelsea and Darren did a great job of pouring and it looks like everyone's objects came out. We used the very ancient "lost wax" method which while it destroys the mold yields good results

click image to zoom

Six Replies to High temperature art

Kelly Lee | April 1, 2011
Wow. I really want to do that.

Scott Hardie | April 1, 2011
Neat!

Tony Peters | April 1, 2011
This is only the second time my school has poured bronze (or any metal) we learned some valuable technical things today. BTW though it doesn't look it the crucible weighs about 50lbs it's fragile and it jiggles like jello when you move it..

Tony Peters | April 1, 2011
here are my pieces out of the molds and at the beginning of cleanup/polishing

click image to zoom

Jackie Mason | April 10, 2011
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Tony Peters | April 10, 2011
It was about 35lbs of molten metal and a 10lbs crucible....the weird thing was we added about 20lbs of metal after we started so the crucible was heavier coming out than it was when I put it into the blast furnace. it's also 1800 degrees which adds a whole level of heavy to it

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