Sculpture
I Picked Up The Waxes of Jenna
Little wings, hands and toes! My apprentice and I will be working on these tonight. I had two waxes poured of Jenna, so there are lots of toes, hands and wings to clean. According to my contract with my client I have the rights to pour up to 9 more of these sculptures. I love the idea that Jenna will make other families happy. I won’t make the other wax Jenna into a bronze until someone has ordered it, but I can put her together and keep her in the corner of my studio to watch over all of the coming and goings! It is a small enough piece that she will hold up quite nicely in wax.
Someone asked. ” I am such a curious person, looking at the molten bronze going into Dick’s shells, just wondering what stops it from seeping out the vents like in the bottom of his shoes and the back of his head?”
The wax is coated with this ceramic shell both inside and out. The vents and sprues either bo back into another portion of the wax or up to the pouring cup. The only real opening is the pour cup. Sometimes a shell will break, and then it is back to pouring another wax, cleaning that wax, dipping it, burning it out and pouring. I have only had that happen once. Oh yes, and once the wrong metal was poured. But I have not had any mishaps like that in a while.
I’ll post photographs later
Sculptor Does A Little Dance!
I did a little dance when I dropped off the molds for Jenna. It was a long process and the studio is a mess. I will be picking up her waxes at the end of this week.
Richard Hathaway
Meanwhile I was able to take some pictures of Dick Hathaway, or at least pieces of him that have gone through the dip process. They are a bit different than the last pictures of the head. 
Quite a shell around those wax pieces. If you have followed documentation process before you will note that inside these shells are the waxes. On Thursday the wax will be burned out of these shells until only a cavity remains. The molten bronze will be carefully poured within that cavity. The pour is scheduled for Thursday. I hope to get some good video footage of it for the upcoming video. I just love to watch a pour! There is something very entrancing about that glow!
I have posted the first video of the Dick Hathaway project before, but for those just joining us here it is again.
Jenna
Now for the explanation of the Jenna pictures. This is the same process that Dick Hathaway went through. Not for the faint of heart.
STEP ONE
The sculpture was divided up into sections to make it easier to create a mold and make it easier to cast. It is hard to believe that you go through all of the work to get the sculpture perfect and then have to cut it up. 
STEP TWO
a white clay is used to make a seam around Jenna, otherwise referred to as “claying up” The seam is strategically placed to facilitate pulling the mold, and waxes that will come out of the mold.
STEP THREE
wax is brushed on coat after coat and then a mother mold of plaster. Once this is done the sculpture is flipped, the white clay taken off leaving that wonderful cream colored rubber. Mold release is sprayed on the rubber so that it will come apart and the entire other side is coated with rubber and plaster. Oh my the plaster make a mess. 
STEP FOUR
when the mold is complete the original art is pulled from the mold, the mold is cleaned, but together for the foundry and shipped off, then the artist does a little happy dance in the foundry parking lot, just prior to going to lunch with a friend. A sculpture that went from conception to mold in 18 days. No wonder I am tired, but still dancing.
I tried! Could Have Done It With An Apprentice
I missed the deadline, but it has been extended. I have been working diligently on the Jenna mold by myself, no apprentice. When it came to clean up I sure did miss her. Midway I ran out of material, found some old material and had to test it to be sure it would still have the chemical reaction that I needed it to. I’ll bring her to the foundry on Tuesday. I have already decided to have two waxes poured. I’ll clean one to go to metal and the second I’ll put together and keep in the studio. It will be good to have her around.
Jenna Waits Patiently
Now that I have my approval I will begin with the mold of Jenna. Once again this is not for the weak of heart! After all of the time spent creating this perfect sculpture I will need to now divide the sculpture up so that molds and waxes can be made. It is a process that I have done for so many years, it no longer bothers me, as it is just part of the process. The difficulty is that I don’t get to look at her for a while. But, in a few weeks, when I go to the foundry to approve the metal and see her there, I will say, “there you are sweety, I missed you.” I greet them all the same way. As a friend who has been a way for a while.
I took Russo, my now former apprentice, to the foundry to see how the sculpture that she has worked on is coming along, and to explain the foundry process with her. Then it was off to buy materials for the Jenna mold. Russo said if she wasn’t going to go to Washington before her trip home to her country, she would come and help. That was sweet, but to be perfectly honest- I’m looking forward to more alone time with Jenna, and since the foundry does not need the molds until Monday, my pace can slow down considerably!
Now it is off, for evening hours with Jenna.
On With The Bronze Process Of Professor Richard Hathaway
The next step, after the creating the waxes, is the gating of the waxes. Pour cups and wax sprues are added to the waxes that came from the Dick Hathaway molds. These are then dipped into a mixture coating the waxes both inside and out. Each of the many pieces will need to be dipped creating a ceramic shell. I went to the foundry today to take some pictures and video of the dip process for the next video that I will be creating about this sculpture. This part of the bronze process will take the foundry about a week. 
We Have Approval, Now On To Being Created In Bronze!
Baby Jenna has bee approved. Mom said “I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through trying to get this done in the time frame, it’s amazing. Can I just say again how beautiful she is, thanks for all of the tweaking and your patience on the whole process, she just came together perfectly,absolutely love it. can’t wait to have her home.”
Keep watching to see her created into a beautiful bronze sculpture!
Few Changes
Just a few modifications on the Jenna sculpture, they have been done and I am awaiting approval from mom.
She is complete!
Now I wait for mom to say
“Approved” and she is off to be created in bronze.
Almost Done!
Jenna now has hair, her hands are attached I am moving toward those toes. Doing a bit of work on the tights, and about to do the last two things, attach her other wings, and finish the butterfly. Symbolic I suppose. I was not well last night and went to bed early. It put me back a bit, but I expect to have final photographs in a few hours. It would be lovely if I could have an approval from the parents this evening then, I could spend the evening preparing Jenna for the mold process. The rubber had been ordered and come in on Wednesday.
I’ll post photographs this evening.
Twirling Around With Jenna
Sign for sign language
Most of the time, while I am sculpting on Jenna she is on a large lazy Susan. Several times when I try to take pictures of her she just starts turning around. I think it is Jenna’s game that she is playing with me. Trying to take the butterfly for a ride.
I still am not securing the two hands, they are taken off a bunch of times each day, to get to the face or the dress. The photographs of Jenna against the wall were taken last night while Russo was here. ( thanks again Russo for all of your help, I have enjoyed having you as an apprentice) I put all of the pieces together so we both could shoot some pictures, some for Russo, and others for this blog.
You may notice there are real ribbons and color full pins on Jeanna’s dress. The ribbons are just placement. As I said before they would never hold up through the mold process so after I receive an approval from her mom I’ll take them off, adding them at the wax stage. The pins are part of the lace design. OF course they look different colors in this clay, but when Jenna is turned into a bronze sculpture they will look like little beads, just like the ones on Jenna’s dress. WE cut out little leaf and flower patterns out of clay and once attached to the dress I put a texture in them.
The tights also have a pattern in them. I love this. This afternoon I went back to Jenna’s face and revised a few things. Jenna’s mom requested I send some pictures of her face looking right at her. To do this I had to remove the butterfly hand. But these are the newest pictures of Jenna’s face with some of my own revisions.
Sorry that the sculpture looks so shiny, it does make it difficult to shoot good pictures. The shininess is because I use hot Vaseline to smooth out the sculpture. I recently ran out of Vaseline and ran to the store to get some. The first time I used it I noticed it had a baby powder scent to it. One more thing to remind me of the specialness of this project. Russo and I agreed that it does smell wonderful.
Tonight I’ll go over everything one more time, add the rest of Jenna’s hair, smooth the dress out where it needs to be, fix the right arm, the only thing left to sculpt, attach the other wing, and sign the sculpture. Final pictures for approval will be sent to the family tomorrow.
