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Wax Castings - Evidence, Reflection & Evaluation


My initial thought process for deciding to make leaves castes from bronze comes from the notion that these plants are presented as some kind of trophy to cities. By using bronze it gives the impression that its much more precious than casting it in steel. Using a metal material is also taken from a witness account who was there when the bomb went off in Hiroshima. Akihiro Takahashi survived the bombing in Hiroshima and describes the devastation left behind. He describes the buildings only being recognisable by their metal frames, as that was all that was left after the blast. Furthermore the resilience of the ginkgo tree emphasised further by it being the longest living tree deserves to be made of a material such as bronze. Anything other than bronze such as paper, clay or even steel wouldn't be as glorifying and 'prize' like. 

Having done bronze casting before to make plaques i felt comfortable enough to take this further ad cast leaves in this material. Firstly i experimented using sand casts to pour the bronze into. However because of the nature of the leaves it would be impossible to cast such a thin piece of bronze. This meant having to thicken the leaves in someway before casting. This lead me to wax casting, this is a technique i have never tried before and speaking with technicians it was something they hadn't done before on such a delicate model. Doing some extensive research showed that it was possible but would be much more of a trial and error process. The wait for bronze cast pours was in a month and halfs time and was along time to see if one way of casting would or wouldn't work. To eliminate this i decided to cast 12 leaves all different shapes, sizes and using different techniques to hopefully have 6 leaves that would be usable and a technique that i would know works for future ventures. The overall process was extremely time consuming, yet this makes it a labour of love and something that is much more personal to myself. The desired aesthetics for the leaves are to have them as thin as possible and to be able to distinguish the grains in the leaves. Covering the leaves in wax and making some thicker than others, some using hotter wax, others having thicker wax in the middle, having the air vents attached to the leaf itself as well as attaching onto the wax, all meant that i could distinguish that best way to cast delicate objects/ plants should i wish to do so in the future. I will only know the outcome once the bronze is poured into the leaves and taken out of the mould. 





Having the wax to hot meant that the leaves browned and curled. I'm hoping this doesn't stop the veins being visible as this is a key indicator that it is a ginkgo leaf. I actually like the curling though as it gives the leaf more dimension. All these factors will only be indicated once casting is complete. 






The intention for these leaves is to be possibly presented with a full-scale ginkgo tree made from metal frame work. Using metal/ bronze as a material also links back to the resilience of the tree which was able to with stand a nuclear bomb, also enhancing its long life - oldest tree species still alive to this day. 



Research - Websites

  • http://carinarossner.com/caor1.html
  • https://hthompsonmaker.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/bronze-casting/




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