Introduction to Fire

Michael Kusie and Linda Cook display extreme caution
pouring hot aluminum into lost wax molds.
(photo Art Department)
Introduction to Fire/Intermediate Sculpture, Art 135B, offered once every third semester, is underway now, with students exploring metal finishing and foundry techniques under the tutelage of Professor Michael Bishop, Art and Art History.

Professor Michael Bishop, center, supervises
and instructs students with the placing of
the molds into pits for cooling.
(photo Art Department)

The class includes an exploration of the "lost wax" process, which involves taking a negative mold and making it into a positive by burning the wax out of the cast. Often done in a kiln, here it is being done by pouring 1400-degree aluminum into molds, placing them into casting pits packed with clay soil for support, and allowing them to cool.