Mould Making and Casting

I use many types of mould in my art practice. I am accustomed to using CO2 sand while Iron casting. To make CO2 sand, ordinary kiln dried builder's sand is mixed with sodium silicate (aka liquid glass), this mix is rammed into your cope and drag (mould box) and 'gassed' with CO2.The CO2 reacts with the sodium silicate and makes the sand very hard.

Above: These are my two moulds in progress, you can see the discarded model on the floor, these have served their purpose and are no longer needed.

These were the biggest sand moulds that I had worked on and it's a good feeling to know they were mine. Each mould involved hours and hours of work, with me staying on site until 4am gassing the moulds, and then crawling back to my tent. I had many people willing and able to help me during the time I spent there which meant that I was ready when the pour day came.

Above: These are the finished moulds, I had piled stone and blocks on top of them to stop the weight of the iron pushing off the lids.


Below: All dressed up with nowhere to go! Posing in my pour gear we all prepared to pour the long line of moulds. In the background you can see the cupolette used to melt our iron.

Most moulds that I have worked on get poured using only one ladle full of Iron, mine were designed to take two ladles at a time; Thats four ladles of iron, and approx 400lbs of iron. Heavy.



The two ladle mould proved to work vey well..... for one half of my piece; and the other half? well there were complications that meant only a qurter got poured on one day, which meant we had to do it all again the next day to get the piece done. The college team that I worked with, all rallied around to make it happen. The 'complications' meant that I ended up with a three piece sculpture instead of a two piece, but i will come to that later...