Brown Seal by Richard Arfsten
Brown Seal - maquette. This is a maquette intended for a minimalist animal series of sculptures made from ferro cement. That is a process of covering a rebar form with expanded wire lath and applying a plaster like stucco to the lath. It sounded easy until I made a horse and rider and cut my hands continually on the sharp lath pieces.
This maquette of Brown Seal is a solid cast iron abstract sculpture. Cast iron is interesting to cast with. It runs like water which is an advantage but a disadvantage at the same time because it leaks out of the mold easily. Not good to have 3000 degree metal running on your foot.
Side note: I have seen an Irish lace bracelet cast in cast iron, which is extremely hard to do. It is cheap, manly, very heavy and extremely hard to weld. Cast iron is not a good choice for sculpture. I have made a few things but they are so heavy it is not practical for me. Bronze weighs the same but is easy to weld, cast and move with a hammer and when it rusts (oxidizes) you can get a wide range of colors from a chemical patina surface finish. Bronze costs 20 times more but it is more workable. That is why most sculpture is bronze and very expensive. The work has to be done in a special art foundry factory, making it very very expensive. So I cast with aluminum. The advantage of aluminum is that it only weighs a third of bronze which makes my maquettes lighter and able to be mailed.
This is a unique piece as is most all of my work. The first piece is fun. The second is work. My motto is "art has to be fun" or I will not do it.
Maquette size: 14" x 7"
This maquette of Brown Seal is a solid cast iron abstract sculpture. Cast iron is interesting to cast with. It runs like water which is an advantage but a disadvantage at the same time because it leaks out of the mold easily. Not good to have 3000 degree metal running on your foot.
Side note: I have seen an Irish lace bracelet cast in cast iron, which is extremely hard to do. It is cheap, manly, very heavy and extremely hard to weld. Cast iron is not a good choice for sculpture. I have made a few things but they are so heavy it is not practical for me. Bronze weighs the same but is easy to weld, cast and move with a hammer and when it rusts (oxidizes) you can get a wide range of colors from a chemical patina surface finish. Bronze costs 20 times more but it is more workable. That is why most sculpture is bronze and very expensive. The work has to be done in a special art foundry factory, making it very very expensive. So I cast with aluminum. The advantage of aluminum is that it only weighs a third of bronze which makes my maquettes lighter and able to be mailed.
This is a unique piece as is most all of my work. The first piece is fun. The second is work. My motto is "art has to be fun" or I will not do it.
Maquette size: 14" x 7"