Alien

Okay, this is one of the first things I did, although I only recently finished and painted it. I have many issues with it and I learned a lot, but it is done and I will leave it at that.

I realize I have nothing in these pictures for scale, so I will just say that it is only about five inches tall.

Temecula Fountain part 2: The Acorns

One of the main elements of the fountain was a bunch of massive bronze acorns. The idea being that the fountain was to resemble a woven native american basket of the kind that was common to the area. The acorns doubled as a means of hiding the water pumping system for the fountain.

We started with raw foam milled to the basic shape of the acorns.

Myself and my little sidekick painting wax on the foam to help the clay stick.

Final sculptural details in clay.

Much of my time is spent making molds for various casting procedures. First step is silicone.

Rigid plaster shell for mold.

Ceramic slurry coating the castings of the acorns before and after pouring bronze.

Bronze casting with ceramic cleaned off.

The acorns had warped quite a bit in the casting process so we had to cut them in half to fix them.

Final color with patina done.

All done. Installed and running.

Temecula Fountain Part 1: The Tile Bowl

We have been working on a public art piece which we got the commission for over a year ago. Designed by this guy, whoever the hell he is, for the city of Temecula, CA, the design called for a large tile bowl that has the appearance of a woven basket filled with water. We were tasked to create a pattern that the tile guys could use to lay out an accurate pattern for the bowl.

First, set up a screed.

Supporting structure and metal screed blade on a pivot.

We need multiples, so we take a negative off this, which we then use to make a mold for creating more.

Tile laid in and ready.