THE END Project completed

THANKS ST. JOSEPH you were all great to work with and I enjoyed my time with you.

Thanks also to Cindy Weaver and husband Jim for putting us up, loved the farm.

Thanks to the South St. Joseph Progressive Association and especially Linda Tanner, you were fun to work with.

Thanks to Charles and Crisanne for coming down from Indiana to be with us.

Thanks to Edson Marsh for making a DVD of the whole program for me and for preserving the newspaper article for me.

And a special thanks to my husband, I could not have done it without him.

Fisher Memorial Sculpture in it's new home in Pryor Park.

Me signing dedication programs for some of the fine folks in St. Jo.

Bronze plaque were on both sides of of the base.

My turn to speak.

Linda Tanner who was the Fisher Memorial Committee Chairman introducing the sculpture.

Bill McKinney Director of St. Joseph Parks Dept. giving a few words.

Father Vincent Rogers giving the prayer at the beginning of the program.

The band played before, during and after the dedication, they were so good, I love it.

June 28, 2009, starting the dedication ceremony and unveiling.

Sculpture covered and ready for the unveiling.

Adding steel pegs to bottom of sculpture to cement into cement base.

Edson Guiding the sculpture towards the base.

Lifting the sculpture out of the trailer.

Edson is checking the template to be sure everything fits when he sets it on the base.

This photo was taken June 23, 2009 when we first arrived in St. Joseph with the sculpture in the trailer.

Edson Marsh is the engineer (and his employees) who will place the sculpture on it's base. Edson is also the one who designed and built the base, it was beautiful.

Molding process finished

The molds have removed and taken to the foundry for the bronzing process, nothing left but cleaning up the mess.

The foundry will use the molds to pour in wax, when it has set up, they dip it many times in a ceramic slurry and let it dry between coats until they get a thick coat of ceramic. The next step will be baking in a kiln until the ceramic is hard and the wax melts out, leaving a narrow space within the walls to pour in the melted bronze. After the poured bronze is set and cold, they will have to weld the whole thing back together, grinding down the seams until they are invisible.

The bronze figure will be sand blasted to dull the metal and prepare for the patina. Next the metal figure will be heated with a flame thrower and when hot, various acids will be applied, giving the bronze the coloring we have all come to recognize as bronze art.

When finished, these bronze figures will be delivered to St. Joseph, Missouri to be set in the base prepared for it.

Removing the mold

In this picture you can see Andrew removing the rubber mold, he has already removed the plaster mold. The ribs you see across the head and around the legs, etc. are the separation areas.

plaster coat

After 5 coats of rubber molding material has been painted on the sculptures, the workers apply a thick coat of plaster mixed with hemp to add stability to the mold. The father figure has taken on an eery appearance with his coats of rubber and plaster.

More pictures of process

After 5 days of painting on the rubber mold material, the foundry workers, Josh and Andrew, are now applying the plaster, mixed with hemp for durablity. You can see the separation areas clearly now.

Painting on the molding material

After sticking the separating metal plates in the clay, Andrew and Nate have painted the sculpture with a coat of white rubber, and a second coat of pink rubber (so they can see what areas have or have not been covered). This was done Friday April, 24 and more shall be added on Monday.

Thus far they have been here for 3 days, almost all day.

Cutting up the sculpture

This part is painful to watch. After months of working on the sculpture, now they have to cut it apart to prepare for the mold. Ouch!

Foundry men preparing for molding sculpture

You can see in this image how the men from Adonis Foundry in Alpine, Utah are preparing for the molding process.



The figures have been separated and are being marked at the separation lines with the small pins.

Sculpture with base, finished

I'm finally finished and now ready to mold.

base

Sculpture with base

Sculpture is almost finished

I still need to refine and smooth much of this sculpture. The base will be made as soon as I am completely finished with the figures.

Comments are welcome.
Claudia

P.S. Click on the picture to see a much larger view.

Rotating view 8

Rotating view 8

Rotating view 7

Rotating view 6

Rotating view 5

Rotating view 4

Rotating view 3