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Macrame Sample
Finished length of macramé worked on waxed cotton, lots of ideas of how to use this within a bronze sculpture. #lost wax #texture #art #sculpture #macrame #knotting
Macrame Sample
Work in progress, Alternating Flat Knots in waxed thread for lost wax sculptures #wax #lost wax #macrame #texture
Experiments with lost wax
More experiments with cord and wax for sculpture development #wax #lostwax #sculpture #art #weaving #macrame
Experiments with lost wax
Today’s in the studio - a production line of dipping string in wax ready for woven experiments #sculpture #weaving #macrame #art
Woven experiment
Woven experiment taken off the former, reminds me of sea creatures #macrame #weaving #sculpture #art
Flat Knots
Today’s weaving experiment in progress - flat knots over an oval form using waxed thread. #macrame #lostwax #sculpture #art #weaving
Weaving experiments
Today’s experiments to combine Corn Dolly weaves with Macrame. An interesting first result #corndollie #macrame #weaving #lostwax
Woven Experiment No.70 - Wax corn dollie
Woven Experiment No.70 - Wax corn dollie
I recently received a lovely gift from the UK Straw Weavers Organisation of a sheaf of wheat, this prompted me to create a corn dollie with a difference, a 40cm long wax corn dollie.
To create the 40cm length took 5 lengths of 3mm wax around 300cm per length, I began with a small neck and began to weave. The lengths I was working was so long I needed to stand upon a chair to allow them to move freely and not become tangled. As I got to the half way mark it dawned on me that if any of the strands snapped it would be very difficult to splice in a new piece of wax, so I continued more slowly and took more care.
The result is a corn dollie that does have a slight taper along its length but is not too noticable, I was disappointed that over 300 cm only creates such a small length of corn dollie.
Maybe this could be wrapped around a plaster core for casting, maybe a shape like Plaster Carving Experiment No.8 ?
Woven Experiment No.69 - Wax drips
Woven Experiment No.69 - Wax drips
The melting idea has worked but is very very slow. It does however, if you don’t heat the wax too much, create beautiful little droplets that retain their shape whilst resetting. If the temperature is too high the wax runs and spreads too much when the droplet hits the surface of the plaster.
The result is a very interesting surface texture that highlights the simplicity of the carved piece within. The question is however, will this cast? Will the delicate texture be still visible once bronze?
New Idea for sculpture
New idea
If you can remember back when I cast my first piece of investment plaster and it got stuck in the bucket, well when it finally came out of the bucket it wasn’t usable so I put it to one side.
I had a unused block, a tub of wax end pieces and my wax welder and I kept returning to them during my research wondering if there is something I could do with them. Last year I attended a great course at YSP (Yorkshire Sculpture Park) on casting wax from clay originals. One of the pieces of equipment wax a wax kettle for melting large quantities of wax for pouring into plaster moulds. I wondered, could I carve the waste section of plaster and the cover it with melted wax? Yes, possibly but two problems, first I don’t have a wax kettle and second how do you safely pour molten wax over an item?
Then the idea struck, I have a welder, why can’t I turn up the temperature and simply touch the wax to the tip to melt it, then catch the drips on the plaster.
It works so I will go and melt and report back.