Season of Shiny Foil

This week there is lots of shiny foil filled with deliciousness. As a creative, I am mostly mesmerized by the beautiful varieties of shiny foil and what project I can involve them in, but lets be honest I hoard them for 6 months then reluctantly dispose of them.

This week has also been one of mixed weather temperatures common in autumn. As much as I love the colour of the autumn leaves, I am less of a fan of the chill in the air. This brings me to warmer thoughts such as a soft jumper, snuggly socks and my favorite of all, casting season.

This is the time of year I enjoy breaking out the casting gear. Sitting at home in front of the telly or playing some good tunes, carving out wax blanks into creative pieces and then on my next visit to the workshop, cranking up the forge or little torch and turning them into glorious metal creations.

So you can imagine how excited I got when my thoughts turned to our up and coming casting class on the 1st of May here in Christchurch and on the 7th of May in Wellington. For this class we will be sand casting, which is in the top 3 of my favourite ways to cast.

There are lots of different styles and methods of casting. I recently wrote about lost wax casting, I promise I am working on some other topics for the blog. Some techniques that I enjoy the most are ones where I have very little control over the finished result, such as water casting and salt casting.

With water casting, the hot metal and the water dictate the end result. Hight and temperatures which vary each pour, can give you anything from a beautiful organic spiral or bubble to an unusual blob. Salt casting can be a bit hit and miss but when successful gives you a result resembling coral.

So while you are enjoying some down time and delicious treats this weekend, check out our website for more information on our casting classes. We have sand casting days at both workshops, where you are welcome to bring your own silver and gold to melt, as well as our 6 week, lost wax casting classes in Wellington starting May 4th and Christchurch June 1st.

Happy Easter everyone, have a safe and creative weekend.

Debs.