Natural Architecture
The magnolia cones are falling in New Zealand at the moment. I picked up a few today and thought I'd have a crack at casting some. I'm taking a bit of a punt here by deciding to just invest the cones directly and see if I can't burn them out of the investment in the kiln.
I formed a cone shaped sprue out of clay and planted the stalk of the seedpods in the clay. Then I put a PVC tube flask around the seedpods, paying more attention to sealing the flask this time.
I wasn't entirely sure that when I poured the investment in, the seedpods wouldn't float to the surface so I committed an investment casting no-no and half filled the flasks and let the investment firm up before pouring the second half. I may get away with it, I may not.
I'll fire them up tomorrow with a 50 degree celcius an hour ramp and a peak temperature of 650. I'll give them a three hour soak to see if the seedpods will actually burn out. Here's hoping.
If it works then I have a whole heap of ideas for things I can try around this process.
1 comments:
Lost wood casting seems like a good idea. The results on the follow up post are interesting. Did you cast any other shapes with this process? I wonder if it is possible to cast intricate shapes or if there is any advantage to use wood over wax or any polymer like foam.
Seems good for making metal pine cones at least :)
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