YEA! we have a pour on the Grambling tiger

It takes lots and lots of metal to make this huge tiger.
All of these bars will be melted down and become ...
The Grambling Mascot. 

If you have been following the foundry process up to now, you have learned about

* The mold making that we did in May,  June and July
* The waxes
* The gating up process and dip
* The burn out

and now we get to the exciting thing.... The pour.

Oh, that is hot!  It is kind of hypnotic,
the look of this molten bronze.  

When I dropped off the molds for the tiger at Shidoni in NM you may remember that I stayed at Bishops Lodge.  I heard people at Bishops Lodge talking about the pour at Shidoni. Apparently Shidoni make this a regular Saturday event and people can come from the local hotels and watch.

A few weeks ago, I was on Facebook and heard that Susan Herndon was performing in the gardens at Shidoni.  Then I saw a photo on Facebook of an empty bench with guitar and amps near by.  I think the caption on the photo said, "stopping the music to see a pour."  I commented, and sure enough, it was our tiger.

The pour on the tiger will happen many times in the next few weeks. For every wax, that is gated up and burned out there will be a pour of the metal into those pieces.  So here are some recent pictures from Shidoni concerning the tiger. I have asked if they can video tape the head being poured. I can't wait to see that. So stay tuned.

You can see the shells in the pit. These shells have had the
wax burned out of them. Now that cavity where the wax
once was will now be filled with molten bronze.
The men wear protective clothing. 

It takes several people to pour the metal-safety in numbers!

How many more of these will be done?  I estimate 50 or so pieces
that have been or will be- made into wax from the molds, gated up,
burned out, and poured.  And we still have a few more steps after this.