Photo dump (Underneath) Melting Wax Head

I added a few of the photos from my melting wax head project that I did.  It is a beeswax cast of a head I sculpted over a shiny aluminum head shape that I cast.  The process took around four hours. I documented with photo and video. I may do another melting of this one this semester.


 Check out more of the photos on this page:

http://mehusculpture.blogspot.com/p/meltting-wax-face.html

Ceramic cow. Wax heads

Posting some progress pictures. Got my ceramic cow head back from the kiln.
It turned out differently than I expected. I will post before and after pictures here.
Also got another wax head poured and started to fill in the gaps on my other one.

This is before it went in the kiln. The way I painted on the glaze

Another before shot

After.... The glaze did what it wanted I guess? I kind of like the color but I dont claim to understand how or why.
This is white slip sprayed on with gold plum brushed on in the gas kiln.  It turned out interesting/

I only glazed the mouth and tongue white from what I can ramamber so interesting that it got color. I kind of like it.

The right side of the cows head (left for you if looking straight on) got a lot of weird color variation. Almost a grey/green color.. I am thinking it is just how the glaze ran over the slip but I have no idea really.

Hole in the back. Original thinking was it could hang on a wall. Could also plug it with some wax or something and use it for a vase. haha

COW NOSE!!

from above

another angle

from below

Another angle

I kind of like how shiny it is.

moo.

I cast another under head (core) in plaster so that I could do a second wax head.

Plaster under head after I sanded it and cleaned it up a bit

Sealed it with denatured alcohol and shellac.

after a coat or two of shellac

'

I cut myself a piece of wax to fit for an eyelid on my first wax casting.

After attaching. It still needs some cleaning up but it has its eyelid now at least

I started to patch up the empty spot on the neck. The wax is white when hot. I am hoping it will yellow up to match the rest of the head after a day or so.

A second wax casting of the head. This one over the plaster head core.

Two wax heads and one clay head

Here are the three creepy heads together. Front head is new wax. Right head is old wax (yellows overnight) on top of aluminum and the left is the original clay head.

Another progress dump

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I have been taking some progress photos but I need to take more. Here is some of what I have been working on lately.

I got the ceramic shell off of the outside of the aluminum head. Then sawed at where it connected to the cup it was poured from and broke it free.

These next few photos are in progress shots of the head being ground down and fixed up. Went from the angle grinder to eventually buffing it to a much shinier finish. I will upload completed photos next time.

close up early on

Add caption

after moving up a step or two.. still not finished in this photo but more even

I thought I would upload a more current photo of the cow tile painting.. Not much looks like it has changed here. I just upped the contrast on some parts and started to fix the grass a bit more.

Close up of its fluffy head texture.

I thought I would throw in a photo with my fat hand for size reference (cat scratches and all)

idk why I am posing with the cow..

Started on another set of paintings. This is a cow at the table and a dog at a table. It is very early
along and rough at this stage. I was trying to get the dog to fit in right

worked on making the dog work in this pose.. realized his head was too large. Everything at this point is like
an underpainting. I plan to clean all of this up.

Removed hair from the head. Started fixing eyes.. etc.. I feel like in some aspects I took a couple steps backwards
with this head. It is going to take more hours to get it to a place where I am happy with it.. Got to even back out the nose, fix the eyes and moth and neck

another angle. Eyebrows temporary too

Where's the hair??? haha.. pony tail chopped off at this stage. I will post more photos once I settle on how it will finally look.

Put the cow in its frame today.  Going to paint the frame black most likely.

Tiles played with a bit here... not final arrangement necessarily. Just one possibility.

closer up

another angle. Now to paint it and prepare it for hanging.

Thanks for looking. Updates on ceramics glazing, photos of painted frame, photos of aluminum head, and photos of final clay head soon to follow.

New Website and Aluminum Pour!!

I got a new website on sale from GoDaddy this week. I am still updating it. None of the text or photos are on there yet. I need to find my artist statement and I need to upload my nicer finished photographs to it but it is nice to have a regular professional website to send people to.

All of my updates and progress will still go on regularly here. The website is more for finished pieces etc. But go ahead and check it out if you want to! Http://MehuArt.com




In other news.... (:P)

We did the aluminum pour today!!!!!! It was pretty fun and it turned out nice which is good. I was worried because my ceramic shell had some cracking but everything worked out fine.

Burning out wax and heating ceramic shell.

My Professor adding aluminum to the crucible

Hot now

Pouring the left over aluminum into ingots

pouring it into the ceramic shell. Sand all around it.

FIRE!

Ingots

Aluminum in shell. Still hot

Close up after breaking some of the shell off.

Breaking the shell off