A couple of days have passed since I last posted so I will bring this blog up-to-date.
Thursday was devoted largely to cleaning up the studio after the pour and dealing with the castings. I am well pleased with Bill’s Lodestone. There is one very definitive line that shows where the first pour ended and lower on the stone there are additional lines for each subsequent pour into the mold. There are also faint but visible lines where the three sections of the mold were divided. All of this is a clear indication to someone familiar with metal casting that the object has been cast. But to the layman they may well appear to be natural characteristics of that particular stone. I like this ambigous quality precisely because it raises questions as to just what the sculpture is /means.
The other works all cast well and my colleagues seem pleased with their results. It is generally agreed that doing a first casting run with the cupola as part of the open studio day was a good idea. It gave us a chance to work together and develop a good team as well as familarizing everyone with this furnace. Tomorrow will be the big community day pour where the public can carve scratch blocks and see them poured. Almost everyone is working hard today to finish molds for the pour.
Friday was a work day for the crew, getting patterns and molds ready for tomorrow, cleaning up the works that were cast on the first, etc. I helped out where I could, and did some on-line research into places to site Bill’s stone in Karlsruhe. I also spent a good deal of time making travel arrangement for my visit to the Pedvale Sculpture Park in Latvia. One of our symposium assistants , Martina, has agreed to transport me and the lodestone to Karlsruhe in her van. This is a great help to me and I am very grateful for her assistance.
Evelyn Neumann, our German artist colleague invited the whole group to her house/studio for a pizza party last night which was great fun and wonderful food. Her husband and son both worked non-stop for a couple of hours making individual pizzas for each one of us! We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing their home & studios.
Here are a few images of Bill’s Lodestone and of last night’s party: Cheers, Carl
Good Evening Carl,
I think Bill’s Lodestone looks great, a fine tribute. Thanks for all the updates and photographs. Looking forward to reading and seeing more at the days move along. Take care.