Goodbye to Putney

I have now finished a complete year of Fridays at Putney School of Art, teaching sculpture from life. Quite possibly I will be remembered most for three memorable models I managed to find - Helen, Matthew and Omarius. Below from the left is Omarius, then Matthew, by Elizabeth Font; Omarius by Donald Mead; Wendoline by Imogen le Marquand; a sphinx by Caroline Dashwood; a sculpture with gilded necklace by Merkhaba Mukergee; and a horse relief in resin bronze by Sue Kochalski.

Both head studies were completed in a single 3-hour session (with a 20-mins break for coffee). The sculpture of Wendoline was completed over a couple of weeks, whilst the sphinx was done substantially away from the studio with only occasional references to a model. The resin bronze started off as a green clay original. A mould was made in Tiranti paste silicone rubber, then cast (outdoors) in resin bronze with an inner core of resin iron. Subsequently it was patinated using acetic acid and salt (not pictured) to give an aged and corroded effect.

Work from late spring and early summer

A great deal of student work has passed through my hands over the past couple of months; sculpture, pots and other ceramic forms, casts in resin bronze, jewellery in sterling silver, fine silver, silicon bronze and pewter, some with enamel. The works of Barry Denman and Jacqueline Watson are illustrated in the right-hand column.

The pendent (left) is fine silver, sawn from sheet (which incidentally was earlier prepared from sterling scrap by refining, casting and rolling), roller-textured and finished with files, sandpaper and finally a tumbler machine, by Halina Panopoulos. The chain is threaded through a sterling tube on the back of the pendent.

Since I have no better forum for her work, I have also illustrated Mary Winchester's latest horse, here seen (left) as unfired & fired stoneware clay. My involvement was mostly limited to advice over drying and firing. See the paragraph on her work below in older (previous) posts.

End of Spring term.

Some of the memorable events of this term have included in particular the ingenuity of the ceramics students - it also seems that the course for next term will be fully booked already, and I am wondering if I should run an additional course.

The jewellery workshop classes chose to have some rings and pendents cast in silicon bronze, because I recently took a shipment of some reasonably cheap silicon bronze rod. This is in contrast to the increasing difficulty of getting my usual art bronze (a leaded tin bronze known as LG4). The item shown left is my small gas furnace for melting silver or bronzes; the burner is on the far left, the thin rod in the foreground is a small thermocouple and the woolly hat is a home-made ceramic fibre blanket 'lid'.


Left is a silicon bronze pendant made by Wendy Mitchell; next an etched sterling-silver oval pendant made by Kathryn Crooks; a silicon bronze ring by Anna Stevens; and finally a pewter pig made by Alan Reynolds (still with sprues and crucible attached). All except the etched pendant were made originally in wax and cast with the lost wax process.

Casting day looms!

It is now nearly the end of spring term, and metal casting is scheduled for next week on Monday and Wednesday evening. Silicon bronze, silver and pewter are the three metals chosen.
But before then it is necessary to burn the waxes out from their entombment in ceramic shell, which I hope to do in a couple of days time at our new workshop. This new location was not chosen with the needs of metal casting in mind, so I am somewhat nervous about burning out about twenty wax shells in the open in a new (and predominantly residential!) neighbourhood.
(As it happened, I found the burning-out to be quite straightforward, with the advantage that I was not restricted to week-ends as formerly).

Patination of silver

Courses start next week, and the ceramics and jewellery ones are full or nearly so already. I am looking forward to having new students and new work to publish. Alan Reynolds, who has more work illustrated below, has recently sent me a picture of the patinated silver necklace he made at the end of the previous term.

The necklace consists of ten domed and patinated silver discs alternating with bought glass beads (some black, some white) and utilising bought sterling chain and findings. The matching earrings use a single disc each. The patination is well sealed, otherwise it could leave unwanted marks on light clothing.

As you can see, Alan understands the importance of presentation! The white satin-lined case makes an excellent contrasting display setting.

The silver was patinated by suspending the discs for about 30 minutes in a sealed container with some ammonium polysulphide solution in the bottom. This liquid emits fumes of hydrogen sulphide, which demands good ventilation to avoid health problems. It is also quite caustic since it contains free alkali, so gloves and goggles are also necessary. The result should be that the silver turns dark and somewhat iridescent (although the rainbow colours are greatly reduced on sealing). It is washed, dried, then sealed with a conservation-grade hard wax.

Putney School of Art & Design

This school, usually abbreviated to PSAD, has been going for over a hundred years, and is found behind Putney High Street. They don’t at the time of writing have their own website, but are hosted on a page provided by Wandsworth Council.
I have been teaching Sculpture from Life there since February 2005 . The students are drawn from the general public, and some have been attending for some seasons, in some cases over several years, booking their slots well in advance. Their interest in the school and their practice of sculpture is quite refreshing. Below is work done by Annie Barclay (first two) and Margaret Maitland (next two).

In October 2006 I ran a one-week course on silversmithing, and am hopeful that there may be further future courses. Below are examples of some of the work produced on that course.

Below we have work from Janet Hill, Sally Shillito, Sue Kochalski (two pictures), Leslie Watts and Alison Conwick.
The last photo, with Alison, is the only record of a quick burst of creative effort, giving supple and accurate modelling in very limited time, since the piece was consigned to the clay bin after being photographed.

Experience for the asking...

I am pleased to be able to put the spotlight on Mary Winchester. See her web page here. I am as much one of her students as she ever was of mine, although she did attend a bronze casting class I gave some years ago, maybe 1998. Now retired from teaching, her incisive and capable mind has mastered many things over the years, not least sculpture and painting. The two pictures on the left illustrate a winged horse figure, in clay before firing; and the next was a commission for a 'dog portrait', again before firing and seen in situ in the kiln. The fourth is of a cow's head in miniature, cast in bronze, and the last is "kneeling bull", work in progress (subsequently fired).
However I wouldn't like to give the impression that her art work is restricted to animal motifs - her series of turbanned Arab heads, among many other types of work, have been very popular.
I have always found Mary's experienced views on art and aesthetics very useful to my own work; so hopefully the allotment where I imagine she wields spade and scythe will not pre-empt all her time.

John Lewis Partnership Ceramics

The John Lewis Partnership has been financing staff to go on art courses for over seven decades, but sadly this sponsorship is due to finish at the end of 2007. For the past six years, I have been priviliged to run a ceramics class for this group, and a very small sample of their work is illustrated here.

This handsome head (the one being held that is) I am told is a 'woodwose' (Anglo-Saxon wudowosa, Wikipedia), a kind of hairy 'wild man of the woods'. It has subsequently been fired and glazed, and looks quite arresting. It was made by Barry Denman (holding it) who also made the striking fish bowl.
Bridget Pavitt had a series of specialities, starting I think with exotic fungi, travelling through bowls and planters, and ending with very life-like sinuous fish which are now installed in a stream at her home.
The lazy group of terracotta seals was made by Alan Reynolds, shown before firing and glazing. And the next picture features a panda, ready for firing in the kiln, made by this very prolific artist.
Pictured are two sets of Spanish-Columbian or Aztec style silver crosses, both originally carved by Alan in hard wax, then cast in sterling silver.
Finally we have Jan Andrews, an absolute whiz at artistry, holding one of her deeply-fissured and oxide-stained pots.

Skulls galore

A series of small human skulls were carved in hard green wax by Wolf Winter. They were cast in sterling silver in two or three sessions after investing with the usual ceramic shell binder (see tutor's site) - the reason for the multiple sessions was that some didn't cast well.

On a side note, another student took a very-well carved wax skull to a casting place in Hatton Garden, and was later given in return a badly-damaged result in silver. He was rather annoyed and felt he was treated in a very off-hand way - I have not mentioned the name of the company since I am uncertain of the liability issues involved. However, it does perhaps highlight the fact that casting is more of an art than science, and never guarantees perfect results all the time.

Anyway, the skulls were sanded with a sanding stick before polishing with metal polish, well cleaned in soap and water, then threaded with jump rings and a lobster-claw to give a rather heavy but effective bracelet.