A trip to Colorado to get a sculpture

Don and I took a box truck to Colorado to get the sculpture "Light of Hope and Healing" from Art Castings of Colorado.

First, I needed to look at the sculpture and make sure it didn't need any more chasing. Chasing means that the pattern on the bronze matches the pattern on the original clay, particularly where parts were welded together. Don and I went over the whole piece; we couldn't find anything that needed to be cleaned up. The foundry has an overhead bridge crane, which makes it easy to lift a piece onto a table for work. There is a hole through the table so that work can be safely set on it (with threaded rod fit into nuts welded inside the sculpture).

This is Charlotte; she did the chasing on the sculpture. The work she did couldn't be better.

The light fixture had already been attached before we got there, but it needed a little tweaking. The main issue was fitting the globe to the hand so that there wouldn't be any light bleed. Dan welded the hand to make a better fit to the globe, and Ken attached the light assembly and worked the bronze so that the globe would fit down flat and eliminate light from showing between the hand and globe.

This is Dan, who did the welding on the hand.

This is Ken. He really did an excellent job working out the light with help from John Shimp of Lamp Shades Etc. in Louisville Ky. Ken was the main force for bringing the sculpture together while we were there - great guy to work with.

Chad highlights the sculpture. Because I want a very light patina, he is burnishing the sculpture, so that it will stay a lighter color when the patina is applied.

Nate and Chad apply flame to the sculpture as Nate (in the foreground) applies patina.

Nate applies a clear sealant to the sculpture, which will protect the patina.

Nate and Chad, the patineurs. Fantastic job guys, the piece looks beautiful!

This is Jeanne, she is one I go to for quotes and if I have any questions. She is always quick with a response.

Tony wasn't around when I was getting photos of everybody, so this will have to suffice. He is the manager of Art Castings, making sure the foundry runs smoothly.
We did a dry run at the foundry to make sure every works....
The base was created by Bellcomb Technologies and is a granite laminate over honey-combed panel, with a steel frame inside which supports the sculpture.
...another view of the complete sculpture...


....and a view of how it will look from the stairs at the site.

As we left for home, we saw this view in the mirror.

Home of the Innocents bronzes

This is ascension. It has yet to be sandblasted and have a patina applied

Here is Metamorphosis with butterflies flying from the blanket.

A side view of the butterflies

This is Art Castings Foundry in Loveland, Colorado where the sculptures for the Home of the Innocents are being cast.

The waxes are dipped into ceramic slurry (a 14 day process to build up a sufficient shell) and are then put into a burnout
oven where the wax is melted out and the ceramic shell hardens. When the shells come out of the oven they are ready to be filled with bronze.

Here is the bronze being poured. It is over 2,000 degrees fahrenheit.

These are the areas where individual sculptures are "chased" Chasing means that the places where the gates and sprues were attached, as well as welded areas, are carved to duplicate the original surface of the sculpture.

While posting pictures from my trip to the Colorado foundry, I found a couple of images that I thought were interesting.
This is an odd flower, no idea what it is. It had been raining and the light was getting low, so I had to use a flash. But that made it stand out more from the background.

This is the summit of Sundance Mountain.

A trip to Colorado

I just returned from a trip to Loveland, Colorado to do finish work on the Home of the Innocents sculpture entitled "Metamorphosis". The blanket portion of the sculpture has a pattern of butterflies, front and back. The blanket could not be thick enough to pull a mold from both sides (it would end up weighing too much), so I had to go to the foundry and carve the individual butterflies into the back of the wax blanket.

Here are the waxes for the two sculptures at Art Castings of Colorado (great place, great people). I will
devote another post to just the foundry and some of what I saw there.

This is part of the "Metamorphosis" sculpture.

Sal, a wax technician at Art Castings, holds up the baby from "Acension" so I can be sure that everything looks right.

This is the blanket with all the butterflies that I carved directly into the wax. I had to make so many, many butterflies - I was seeing them in my sleep.

After I was done with the wax, I got to go up to Rocky Mountain National Park, which is only about 50 miles from Loveland.

This time of year, there are lots of babies. Here is a herd of elk with their calves.

This bull elk came right up next to the car, making it easy to get a good picture.

This is a variety of Orchid that is native to the region.

This was the highlight of the trip, being able to go across Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in the United States. I'm on a path leading to the peak of Sundance mountain, which is over 12,400 feet above sea level. And yes, I got to the peak with a 360 degree view of the mountains, pretty cool.

As I was leaving, a thunderstorm came up and with it, a rainbow. A great ending to a great trip.