My first collaboration with Clay Foster

I have been an admirerer of Clay Foster's sculptural work for a couple of decades. Over the years we have become friends and correspondents but we had never collaborated on a piece. The opportunity arose this year, and I'm very happy to present our piece, Ceremony, which combines my cast bronze bowl and Clay's architectural stand that is inspired from African cultures.

I learned how to make a two-part rubber and plaster mold for glass casting, which is also useful for bronze casting. I used a bowl I had previously turned from maple for the mold. Part of the two-part mold includes a reservoir that can hold the glass pieces for melting in the kiln. When I cast the first of the wax replicas of my bowl, the reservoir made it appear to be sitting on a stand, which, in turn, reminded me of Clay’s wonderful ceremonial bowl series.

After the bronze casting was released from the mold and separated from the reservoir, I asked Clay if he would be interested in doing a collaboration. Luckily for me, he said “yes.” I worked on achieving a patina on the bowl and then sent it off to Clay.

His stand is beautiful, I think. I hope you agree. The piece is 9.5 X 3.5 X 3.5 inches (24.1 X 8.9 X 8.9 cm), made from cast bronze, wood, brass brads, and grout. The bowl is solid, which means it’s heavy (3 lbs!).

This will be in a live auction on Friday, July 16th during the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) virtual symposium 2021. I’ll post a link when it’s available for bids. In the meantime, here are our artist statements and background information:

Clay's Statement:
Ceremony is born deep in the belly of ancient stories, and lives on in the emblems of ritual, becoming sacred by generations of use.

Andi's Statement:
Working with bronze has an element of ceremony in that the coordination of the team during the pour feels ritualistic. The steps are always the same: melt the wax out of the mold, put the mold in the sand pit, remove the crucible and carry it to the pit, pour the molten metal, wait for it to cool. It's highly choreographed with each participant's role clearly defined - very akin to ceremonial activities.

Andi: I recently learned mold making for glass casting at The Ohio State University, and used one of my wood-turned bowls for the exercise. While in the process of glass casting I was given the additional opportunity to learn bronze casting. The wax castings from the 2-part mold I made reminded me of Clay's Ceremonial bowls. When I removed my bronze cast bowl from its casing I knew I wanted to collaborate with Clay to bring the piece to life. We both love old bronze artifacts and African art, and have bronze pieces from Africa in our personal collections. We wanted to emulate the patina found on these artifacts, with areas that are worn and shiny from much handling.

Clay: This is the first collaboration piece by Andi Wolfe and Clay Foster. It is also the first piece Clay has made in over two years because of health reasons, and future production will be limited.

Donate Life organ donation registration (https://www.donatelife.net)

Clay received an AAW Honorary Lifetime Member Award in 2017. You can read the article about it and find out more about his incredible work here: https://www.woodturner.org/common/Uploaded%20files/POPMeritAward/2014Foster.pdf

I'm always exploring new techniques

I've been very fortunate to be able to take glass classes at OSU. This semester I took an intermediate level course where I learned how to incorporate imagery in fused glass and mold making for glass casting. I used an old demo bowl that has traveled with me for years to learn how to make a two-part rubber and plaster mold. What a fun adventure! The mold I made can also be used for bronze casting, and I was given an opportunity to participate in this semester's bronze pour at the Sherman Center for Art.

Kudos to Becca Arday, my instructor for the semester. She did a fantastic job of explaining each step of the process. Just to give you an idea of what it takes to make a mold for casting I'll outline the steps.

1. Use plasticine to secure the object of interest in a custom-made frame for pouring the first part of the mold. Add a transition for pouring in the wax.

2. Mix a two-part rubber epoxy and coat the object until it is 1/4 inch thick throughout the mold. This involves about half an hour of pushing the rubber around as it thickens.

3. Add registration keys to the semi-solid rubber. Let the rubber set for about 24 hours.

4. Add a thick layer of plaster on top of the first part of the rubber mold. Let it set for 24 hours.

5. Remove the first part of the mold from its frame, clean up the mess, and start the second part of the mold by repeating steps 1-4.

6. After the two-part mold is made, condition the mold in water to thoroughly wet the dried plaster. Wrap the mold in strapping tape to keep the two halves together.

7. Use melted wax and pour into the the mold. Watch the cooling process and pour out the wax after a rim is formed. The wax casting is hollow.

8. Let the wax cool completely before taking apart the mold. Clean up any flaws.

9. Use another plaster mold for making a reservoir that will contain the glass to be melted. Once this has cooled the two wax castings are joined together.

10. The resulting wax cast is used for making another two-part mold consisting of plaster and silica for the first layer and plaster, silica, and grog for the second layer. The top of this mold is leveled for eventual placement in the kiln.

11. Steam out the wax and clean the interior of the mold with boiling water.

12. Measure the volume of the mold to calculate the amount of glass (by weight) that will be added.

13. Dry the mold completely (in an old kiln).

14. Clean the glass pieces and weigh them to the measurement calculated.

15. Take the mold to the kiln. Settle it on a small pile of sand and make it level. Add the glass.

16. Run the kiln for the length of time needed to melt the glass and anneal it.

17. Break off the mold from the glass.

18. Separate the reservoir from the object and clean up the glass to the desired finish.

The process takes about two weeks altogether. Once a mold is made, though, it can be used until it wears out.

The bronze casting mold is a different process, but I've already made this post too long. At any rate, I had a blast learning a new technique and I want to continue this series.