Tanker Bear

My teacher Gina Zetts and I collaborated in making this piece.  It combines flame working [shaping the glass in a small torch resembling a Bunsen burner], casting, hollow core casting, and hours and days of cold working [polishing the glass after it comes out of the mold].  Our final piece is wonderful; but it was a long, tough slog bringing it into being.  Our first failed attempt is shown below on the right. The tanker is misshapen, the result of a mold blowout.  The plaster did not hold and the glass broke free and went its own way.  So we started over.

When we finally got a casting that worked, it required much polishing.  And because the bear inside the tanker was a hollow core, we had to get the plaster out of the mold after it annealed.  Below right, the plaster bear is still in place.  When the plaster is gone, what looks like the bear is actually a void in the glass tanker.  I devised a clever scheme employing a pond pump to loosen the plaster bits enough so I could take them out with dental tools.

Gina made the ladder using a torch. The wheels are cast. You can see that the ladder is glossier than the wheels, never having been in contact with a plaster mold.