The move from London was seemingly more of an ordeal than what I was aware of. My thoroughness resulted in a disabling flu on the day following our arrival in Italy, and this was followed by the stomach flu which took London by siege, and which I had somehow managed to avoid, or perhaps simply negotiate a temporary ceasefire until the move was completed.You spent more days persisting with Castilene wax casts, battling against the pinch, the shrinkage, and with little success, carving out the eye sockets and not breaking the eyelid.
Therefore I lost about a month's work due to illness and re-establishing ourselves in our new place.
But the wax was yet another material you persisted with, with the knowledge that it was not going to work.
After trying a newly found plastilene titled Degas, and giving up before exhausting all options in the search for an epoxy resin, you found a pleasingly strong plaster, which looked at you the same way she looks when you arrive at the spot twenty minutes late, wishing you could pause life and go back and take another shower.
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| Plaster cast, during carving process. |
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| Plaster cast of Isolde v.2. Always interesting to see her in a different material. |
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| Plaster cast of Isolde v.2 |
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| a block of Castilene (in this case with steel balls embedded) was placed after the first couple of layers of plaster to leave a cavity. The castilene was then melted out with a heat gun. It is visible that the steel balls were poorly positioned. |
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| Carving plaster. |
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| The last three Castilene casts. The melted wax was brushed thinly into the mould, for the surface coat. After cooling, one or two layers were brushed in, followed by cooler wax gently pressed in by hand to keep the temperature low, to reduce shrinkage. (wax draws and shrinks towards the heat). |
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| Anna, castilene. Steel balls had been melted through the eyelids, to rebuild eyelids afterwards. |
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| Anna, castilene. Steel balls had been melted through the eyelids, to rebuild eyelids afterwards. |
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| The new sculpture desk, Assisi studio, Italy. |
