Monday, July 28, 2008

Working the waxes at Fundere foundry

I am back from Melbourne after working at the foundry over five days. It was facinating to work with the foundry guys and see their methods of cleaning and repairing the waxes they had worked on since they had left Adelaide.
I soon had the hang of it and worked quite hard every day.
Sean would pick me up from where I was staying, at 7:45am, we would have a cup of coffee and then set to work on the waxes, having a quick morning tea break, and a lunch break, then work till about 4:30pm. Sean would drop me off and I would go to the shops for food for the next day, then eat, have a bath and work on the waxes of the hands whilst I listened to the Tour de France on TV. Most nights I stayed up until 1:00am before finishing a set of hands so I was starting to become quite tired by the weekend.
John, my husband drove over to Melbourne on Saturday and we celebrated his birthday on Sunday. While he went to spend the day with his brother on Monday, I went to the foundry and completed the last of the waxes. During the time I was working on the waxes, Sean was sprueing up the finished waxes .
It was a great week albeit a long week, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rhythm of work at the foundry.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mary Mackillop's role in World Youth Day



There will be people from all over the world, gathering in cities around Australia for World Youth Day.We are hoping that Blessed Mary MacKillop may be on track for sainthood and Pope Benedict XVI will be making a special visit to her tomb in Sydney whilst he is here in Australia.
It will be a very important visit as Mary is close to sainthood and it is very special to have been chosen to sculpt her and have a large bronze of her in the heart of Adelaide to remember her by.

I will be off tomorrow to work on the wax images from the moulds taken by the foundry.

Sean from Fundere Foundry says they are looking good.

So whilst I am working this week on the sculptures ' waxes I will be hoping for special news about Mary.

The bronze isn't ready for this year's Youth day but it will be ready to see in November this year.

I hope all the visitors to Australia enjoy their visit and make many life long friendships and if they would like to leave me a message, they will be able to follow the making of this important statue.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fibrecasting complete
















































Off to Melbourne

Just letting everyone know that I will be in Melbourne next Tuesday.
Sean from the foundry will pick me up daily from my hotel and take me to the foundry where I will be working on the waxes, refining them ready for the boys at the foundry to sprue and invest the pieces ready for pouring the bronzes.
They have already painted the waxes in the moulds (that they made in Adelaide last month) and have released them from the moulds. Sean assures me that they have worked well, so I am dying to see them for myself.
I will be working along side the wax workers to make sure all is correct and will probably be in Melbourne for a week.
The weather is very cool at the moment so I will need to take some warm clothing with me. Temperature yesterday was13 degrees and the foundry looks a cold and drafty place.
I hope to take lots of photos whilst I am there.
I have had to do some bookkeeping before I left and also some exhibition work to keep myself up to date.
I have also had talks with the Bishop and the architect about the height and design of the plinth and the church has set a preliminary date for the Blessing of the new sculpture on Sunday 2nd November 2008, all going well with the bronze pour. Will post again after Melbourne.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Pugging clay

Pugging clay for the last few days and have now finally finished bagging up 400 kg of clay. This now completes my work on the sculpture. Because the clay was a very light colour I have added some red iron oxide and manganese to the clay to make it a slightly deeper colour.