Overview of process (notes from Life casting procedure PHS ppt)

Watch this video: http://player.vimeo.com/video/135551089

Plants and Flowers (one-piece molds)

Washington, DC molding and Williamsburg burnout and casting

See these pages in ms (not the latest trans): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B33U03wERu0edXNkUl85RmtEOHc

Crayfish (two-piece molds)

Mold side 1:

• Roll out flat clay base

• Pose specimen

• Add wax sprue and gate system and air vents

• Add notches with clay for later registration of 2 sides of mold

• Build up clay wall around the base, taller than specimen. Make sure base and walls are joined securely, with no leaks

• Pour in plaster mix over the specimen and wax

• Let the plaster set

Mold side 2:

• When the plaster has set, take off clay walls

• Turn the mold upside down so that clay base is on top

• Remove clay base to expose the specimen and wax

• Build up clay walls to create the second side

• Pour in plaster

• Let the plaster set

• When the plaster has set, take off clay walls and base as before

Burnout of specimen

• Bind the two sides of the mold together with wire

• In kiln, burn out the specimen

• Cool

• Open the mold

• Blow out the ashes

Metal pour

• Put two mold halves together and wire together (best with clamp system, but can also be done with metal sheets+wire or just wire)

• Paint plaster on the join line of the two halves

• Heat the molds in the kiln

• Cool to ca 120 C

• Melt metal in crucibles using blowtorches

• Pour metal into mold

Cast removal

• Immerse in cold water

OR

• Break mold with hammer/mallet, then immerse in cold water

Finishing

• Using snips, remove sprues and flashing

Other

• To cast plants in one piece molds, use thread/string to keep it upright

• If casting insect wings, flower petals, etc., paint underside with butter

  • Or also wheat oil? Brandy?

• Shortcut: instead of building up container for the mold with clay, use ready-made containers (such as disposable cups or bowls)

• (Slide 85) - very strong mold with no cracks and air vents held up well

  • Beetle cast

  • 2x plaster

  • 1x tile

  • 1/4 iron oxide PART NOT TABLESPOON

NJR questions

• Where are the points in the overall procedure where we need to have two separate processes prepped to come together? Or that are dependent on each other? For example:

  • Plaster mix prepped with specimen+wax system ready

  • Kiln heat and mold prep

  • Mold prep/heat and metal melting

• When is butter, wheat oil, and brandy employed and for what

• How to determine wax sprue/gate system

• Recipe for homemade wax sprues? We can prep in advance of day

• Recipe for plaster mix

  • From PHS notes, it seems that Fr. 640 "full amount" was the best

    • From 2011 - (pg 6) Full iron oxide mix - casting in silver

      • 2 parts plaster

      • 1 part ground tile

      • 1/2 part iron oxide

      • 1 egg

      • 1 tbs sal ammoniac

      • ~200ml water

• How long does setting of plaster typically take?

• Burnout - how much prep of the kiln is necessary? How long does the kiln run? Cooling? --> for overall timing of the two days

  • Kiln temp and times

• Metal pouring

  • How much prep is necessary

  • What does workstation look like

• Do we need wax melter pens?

  • We have some in the drawers in the lab, but I have no idea if they still work

Field note links

• https://making-and-knowing.wikischolars.columbia.edu/Palframan+-+Plaster+Molding+Spring+2015

Copied from 2018 Toulouse Exhibition plans, notes on July 26, 2017

• M&K team to try after Aug 22 - possible last week before school starts (week of 8/28) or first week of classes because G8906 doesn't meet (week of 9/4)

• If this proves to be a disaster, we can try again or reach out to Andrew Lacey for help

  • He is based in UK

  • Would require a fee

  • (could help save time)

• Want Lan to document the process so we can have a really good record and "field notes" of the process (the object from start to finish at every single step) - like M&K stock media

  • Can we write an article from this day? Journal of Visual Evidence?

  • Another idea: Ask Feiner's group to see if they have any interest in a project based around this

• Use tin-lead mix

• Possibilities to do

  • Beetle

  • Lizard

  • Crayfish

  • Rosemary

  • Butterfly

  • Leaf - ivy

  • Rose

• FINAL list to try, with where to source them

  • Ivy leaf - PHS - park

  • Rosemary - NJR - from plant at home - Field notes Gans

  • Butterfly - NJR - AMNH store - Field notes Shiye

  • Beetle - Field notes Shiye

• Possibilities of existing objects to send

  • Jenny's flower

  • Beetle (x2)

  • PHS wheat

  • PHS plant

  • Giulia and Jef's rose

• Repair work

  • PHS wheat stem

  • M+K beetle

NJR Notes from PHS casting notes

NJR: pull out the recipes we may follow from PHS notes

PHS: overview of process

2011 Rijksmuseum - "EXPERIMENT: JANUARY 10-18, 2011 AMSTERDAM ATELIERGEBOUW"

• (pg 1) What we learned this time

  • Very little cracking, perhaps because of:

    • Putting wet molds in kiln

    • Chicken wire

    • Ground tile in mold

    • Smaller molds generally

    • Thick plaster better than thin for sturdy molds

      • Thin part of mixture poured in first created terrific impression

    • "Luting" around joins after wiring and before heating for metal pour is effective

    • Full amount of iron oxide following ms made extremely hard molds that were not friable dry but came out pretty well if dropped into cold water after ~10min

• (pg 6) Full iron oxide mix - casting in silver

  • 2 parts plaster

  • 1 part ground tile

  • 1/2 part iron oxide

  • 1 egg

  • 1 tbs sal ammoniac

  • ~200ml water

• (pg 7) Methods

  • Getting wax out

    • Wax steamed out in steamer for ~1.5hrs at 80, and up to 85

  • Burnout

up to 100 in 3hrs

at 100 for 3hrs

up to 200 in 3hrs

at 200 for 11.75hrs

up to 350 in 3hrs

at 350 for 3hrs

up to 500 in 3hrs

at 500 for 28 hrs

cooled for 35hrs

• Cleanout

  • Notes about coming in on monday morning to find beetles completely fine ash

  • Thicker plaster better than thin

• Notes I presume on the next steps of the process, but not labeled as such

  • Wired them up, put plaster mix around joins

  • In kiln: heated up to 450 over 4 hours. At 450 for ~1hr

  • All poured within 1 hr with no cracks or disasters

Casting Expts - "EXPERIMENT 23 June 2009 - 16 July 2009 - AMSTERDAM ATELIERGEBOUW" -- FROM PHS, NOT RELEVANT

PLANS FOR 9/21/17-9/22/17

• NJR+THU to arrive early on thursday to prep for photos

• ROSEMARY

  • Try one surrounded by wax

  • And a second not surrounded by wax (ms method)

• Ivy leaf - PHS - park

• Rosemary - NJR - from plant at home - Field notes Gans

• Butterfly - NJR - AMNH store - Field notes Shiye

• Beetle - Field notes Shiye

• Need to determine alloy appropriate for each

  • I think we can go with either of these:

  • 2 oz lead in 16 oz tin, or 1/4 part lead to tin (by weight)

  • <id>p110v_3</id>

<head>A cast of <m>lead</m> or <m>tin</m></head>

<ab>Because you want to cast <m>tin</m> very thinly, if your medal, plant or other thing ^{you want} to mold is thin & fine, make ^sure to include more <m>tin</m>, much more than <m>lead</m>, namely less than the fourth part of <m>lead</m> for three of <m>tin</m>. And moreover, one only puts <m>lead</m> in as an alloy. Contrarily, if you want to mold something strong & thick, put [h]a lot more <m>lead</m> in than <m>tin</m>. And for the one & the other you can put in a little <m>looking-glass tin</m>, but only a very little, with a little <m>resin</m>, when you want to cast. Since then, when molding with pure new <m>lead</m>, I put in two ounces of pure <m>tin</m> for every pound ^{of <m>lead</m>}. And when molding with pure <m>tin</m>, I put in two ounces of pure <m>lead</m> for every pound ^{of <m>tin</m>}. I made some plants & snakes as if they were real.[i]</ab>