New Page 1

Mold making

Moldmaking

And so the next stage begins. . .even before the first stage is finished!

Meet Zdenko and Mike, the mold makers from Arizona Bronze foundry. They drove all the way from Phoenix Arizona to find us, bleary eyed, and still at work on the clay! They started their work right away and even though they had to trip over us for a little bit, they were good sports about it. Wisconsin had a special surprise for the Arizona guys too. . .a whole week of below zero temps and loads of snow! Rumor has it that they developed quite a taste for tobogganing during their week long stay with us.

Just like making a mold on a small piece, certain parts have to be removed and molded separately for ease of casting the waxes. In the second photo, Zdenko takes one of many pictures to use as reference back at the foundry where they will put all the pieces together again. The third photo is Secretariat's tail, Turcotte's right hand and forearm. The last photo is of Turcotte's partial arms. The Shims are in place on these pieces ready to serve as the partings for the flexible silicone mold.

Shims, shims everywhere. These ensure that the partings for the mold will be precise, clean, and (most importantly) properly placed.

Still hard at work on Eddie Sweat while Mike and Zdenko occupy themselves with Secretariat and Ron Turcotte.

Kathi? Kathi? Are you sleeping? Nope, not unless I was just dreaming about sculpting cowboy boots.

Because this is a family oriented site, I have covered my face in this photo to protect the sensibilities of the viewer. It was just too horrific to display. Art isn't always pretty. . .neither am I.

Safety first.

Applying the first coat of mold material.

Multiple coats of material are used to build up a good thickness for durability.

A hard resin shell is applied *over* the flexible mold and around metal stabilizer bars which also provide handles to help ease the maneuverability of the large shell sections. In the second photo Dzenko removes the first finished section of Secretariat's hard shell.

Removing the finished flexible mold. Here you can see where the shims provide separations at the appropriate places. In the third photo, Mike helps Eddie Sweat out of his mold.

An optical illusion. . .Ron Turcotte's face stares out of the concave mold interior. The piece on the right of the photo is the other half (viewed from the side), containing the back of Turcotte's head and torso.

Following the completion of the mold making, Mike and Dzenko loaded up the various pieces of molds on their truck and trailor and drove it all back to Arizona Bronze.

As I write this, the waxes are being poured and dressed out in Arizona. My Father is there to oversee and touch up anything that needs to be done.

More photos to come!