Portfolio > Working Process

Maternal Time Clock
Maternal Time Clock
Cast Bronze, Cast Glass, Antique Clock
2018

Using my hands and dental tools, I mold wax into a figure and attach sprues, which allow an avenue for the wax to leave the mold and the metal or glass to enter— the lost wax method. The wax is steamed out after the casting mold is built, which leaves a negative space for the molten bronze, aluminum, or glass to enter. Often I cast part of a sculpture in metal and then build a corresponding clay component, which needs it’s own casting mold. When the clay is removed it creates a negative space for the glass. The mold is placed into the kiln upside down with the glass loaded above. The kiln is heated up to 1525° to allow the glass to melt into the mold and then slowly returned (annealed) to room temperature, taking up to a week. Metal and glass pieces must be carefully broken out of the casting mold and cleaned with cold work—cutting, sanding, buffing, and grinding. The piece may appear to be completed but this is often only the starting point for other elements to be woven in.