Found Dreaming

Why not? Stella is a good name for her. The name of the piece is "Caught in the Act." Stella is my regular beer nowadays. I remember when American beer had some real flavor, back in the 1950's when I first started drinking beer, but now it's watered down and almost tasteless. Mexican beer ...

To make the reeds/grasses I used short pieces of copper water pipe and copper wire.

The beer fridge was already full of beer. No more room.

Sawing logs can be addicting. More fun than building stuff even. I cut my sawmill teeth on a Frick back when I owned a small wood shipyard in Virginia. I bought five truckloads of 25 foot white oak logs to build a large sailing boat. I knew a retired sawyer who had an old Frick set up back of his ho...

The exhibition is tomorrow night. I finished her this morning.

I have been hard at work on this new girl, mounting her on a base and chasing. What chasing is is the cutting off of the flashing and other bumps with a sharp chisel, and then smoothing her with very fine files. That takes a while. Then I brush her with a wire brush wheel on an electric motor. Why d...

No voids. Some normal flashing, and the need to fill the holes left by the stainless core pins. I'm always tempted to use silicon bronze welding rod instead of stainless (or galvanized nails in large castings) but I am afraid they will melt when I pour in the bronze. This is when it would be nice to...

I busted her out this morning. http://sjames.users.sonic.net/exhibit_2023/busted_out.jpg http://sjames.users.sonic.net/exhibit_2023/busted_out_close.jpg Okay, so far so good. I then asked my house man to clean her up with the power washer. I was afraid to watch. When he brought her to me... http://s...

I burned out the investment for four days and nights at 1000 F. This morning I shut off the kiln burner and lifted off the kiln body with the gantry crane. The investment looked perfect. So I fired up the small furnace and began heating metal. http://sjames.users.sonic.net/exhibit_2023/metal:melting...

Old age has slowed me down. I finally got the girl ready to invest and this morning I did it. It was elbows and assholes for a few hours. The foundry floor after investing: http://sjames.users.sonic.net/exhibit_2023/foundry_after_investing.jpg Pay no attention to the saxophone. The investment: http:...