Patina

The patina is the coloring of the tiger.  The color is created by using chemicals and heat.  It is a very dark cold and long day/evening when we figure out the patina. Once we decide on the color it will take several days to complete the patina.

The sculpture now complete must now received a patina

After sandblasting the sculpture it begins to receive the appropriate chemicals to give it the color that it needs. 

The patina brings the tiger to life. I am not sure if it is exhaustion or creativity, but I begin to shed a tear when I see it come together.

Going high for detail

Once the sculpture is sandblasted, I must check it out to be sure that there are not corrections. I walk around the sculpture or in this case, climb around the sculpture looking for places for them to fix. I mark them with a marker and then the foundry men work their magic.  I have a very intimate relationship with this height and this tiger head.   

It is cold, it is high, it is fierce! 

A cat finds his/her rock.

The foundry works diligently to meet the deadline.  Each of the many pieces of metal must be welded together seamlessly.  Once the cat is almost finished, it is moved from one side of the foundry to the other.

Sitting inside the belly of the tiger.  

The sculpture has stainless steal reinforcement throughout the inside of the cat. 

The cat is moved by crane from one end of the foundry to the other.  

Now to get this cat on top of the rock. 

Could wait to see this.  

It sure is big. Everyone says the same thing. 

The last paw is left off so that the armature of steal can be brought up into the arm. 

A tight fit. 

Wrestling the Tiger

The foundry men wrestle with the beast.  It fights back. 

I'm headed to the foundry in New Mexico very soon to monitor the rest of the progress and to do the final coloring of the tiger.  Then we will load it up on the flat bed and watch for it to arrive on campus.  Not sure how much posting I'll be able to do while there. You will get glimmers of the sculpture in the snap shots that I take. Not until the great reveal will you be able to see the entire sculpture complete. Unless... you are in NM on November 16th. I'll be giving a lecture on "Taming the beast" at Shidoni Foundry.  The lecture will culminate with watching a bronze pour. (Not the tiger as it will be complete.) We will also be able to take a look at the finished tiger.  I can hardly wait.

Pieces must be welded and blended together. 

Looks like the tiger is putting up a fight. 

I'd be happy to repeat this lecture at Grambling for those who are interested.  Looks like we are leaning toward delivery of the sculpture in the first week of December.

Rocking out again!

The rocks in this tiger sculpture are just as massive as the tiger itself.  The many, many pieces of the sculpture are being welded together. The foundry will match my sculpted textures. It is a huge puzzle to figure out where everything goes. There will also be an internal structure inside the sculpture to give it support.  

Removing the ceramic shell from the tiger head

In the last blog post we saw some the process of pouring the head of the tiger.  Now that the head is poured, the ceramic shell must be broken off of the metal. This is called divesting. I asked the foundry to take a movie of this part. It looks brutal, but it is important.  If you watch the entire thing be sure to look at the how they also much take the shell of the inside the sculpture.

The second part of this video shows them taking the metal spurs off of the sculpture. I especially like the look of this video. Seeing the light from the torch shine through the holes in the sculpture.

Now, this piece will need to be sandblasted to get all of the ceramic shell off of the metal.