ANCHOR INTRO: Lost wax bronze casting is a 5000 year old art form but it is getting a new twist at the Grossmont College Sculpture Department. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando visits the foundry to speak with Professor Jim Wilsterman about teaching art in a public context. TAG: Watch Beth’s video about the Grossmont College Foundry and the making of the orc sword at K-P-B-S-dot- O-R-G. If you’ve ever driven down the 125 freeway and noticed some stainless steel clouds atop a 150 foot mushroom-shaped, rust-colored water tower, well Jim Wilsterman made that. It was part of a public art venture called the Helix/Padre Dam Cloud Project that was done in 1996. JIM WILSTERMAN: I do a lot of public projects and a lot of museum installations and the work that I do requires that I switch media to whatever is appropriate for that so a lot of times I work in stainless steel or granite, bronze… and so whatever is most appropriate for what I’m doing. Wilsterman is a mixed media artist and professor of sculpture at Grossmont College. He has a passion for what he does and fought to make his department the best it can be. JIM WILSTERMAN: We had inadequate facilities for years, our college district floated a bond called Prop R and we were identified as one of the programs most in need of having new facilities so they not only built us a good facility it’s a great facility, one of the largest ones in the state. It includes something most campuses lack -- a foundry where students can do lost wax bronze casting. JIM WILSTERMAN: Bronze casting is very traditional there are a lot of ways of doing it that arrive at the same results… We use a Mifco furnace, it is a very hi-tech, high velocity furnace, it runs at about 1.2 million BTUs, and we take it up to about 2300 degrees to melt the bronze and then we pull the crucible out which is the container that the bronze goes into, and then we take the molds and heat them, the wax runs out and we can replace it with bronze or another metal. The equipment may be state of the art but the technique dates back to India in 3500 BC. But some things are still done the old-fashioned way. CLIP SFX hammering sword Sculpture student Joshua Sprague works on an orc sword he fashioned after the one in The Lord of the Rings movie. He cast the sword in bronze and is now fine tuning the blade with a ball peon hammer and anvil. JOSHUA SPRAGUE: Well I am about to continue cold forging the Uruk-hai scimitar and giving it a few more hits, the texture there is all cold forging and just going to straighten it out a little bit more but it’s all part of the process. Wilsterman says the program Grossmont offers is not found at many other schools. JIM WILSTERMAN: It used to be offered at many schools in San Diego county now there’s only 3 that have a program similar to this, this is the largest one. Our program here is geared toward teaching public art and art fabrication. That combination of public art and sculpture is key to Wilsterman who recently revised curriculum so a new and more fitting degree can be offered to Grossmont students. JIM WILSTERMAN: Where it is more specific to the facilities and that we can offer students because now have these new capabilities so the degree is going to be called Sculpture and public art, it’s been a long time dream of mine to sort of weld those things together and teach about them. Wilsterman is excited about this new degree because while other institutions have been successful at teaching art theory and processes, most artists are not trained to deal with public administrations, contractors, politicians, civic leaders, and with lawyers and contracts. JIM WILSTERMAN: There’s not a lot of people that train artists to be public artists. They learn about how to make sculpture or about how to make paintings and other things like that but they don’t really teach them about how to function in the public context and that’s been something that’s my specialty. His goal is to train artists to be fluent in what it takes to do art in public places, and to successfully design and compete for commissions. That’s because Wilsterman identified the biggest area of growth in funding the arts has been in realm of art in public places. So now there’s a course described as: “Public Art through a commissioning process. The course will cover several aspects and methods used in the production of commissioned works. Issues examined will include negotiation, design and budget through procurement of materials, fabrication and installation.” Plus, the department will attempt to secure an actual commission for students during the course. That’s putting traditional forms of art in a new and more practical context for students. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
The second installment, "The Desolation of Smaug," of the Hobbit Trilogy opened last night reigniting interest in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth with its hobbits, orcs, elves, and dwarves. I visited the Grossmont College Foundry where one student decided to try and forge an orc sword.
The cruel blades of the merciless Uruk-Hai were forged by Saruman in the foulest pits of Isengard but sculpture student Joshua Sprague had to settle for the furnace at his Grossmont College Foundry Lab to craft his version of the orc scimitar. The weapon was made famous in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels and then in Peter Jackson’s "Lord of the Rings" films. The blade is distinguished by the ingenious addition of a spike on the end on that could pull a rider from his horse with minimal effort. Since Grossmont College Sculpture department has a foundry, Sprague decided to fashion his weapon out of bronze.
Jim Wilsterman, professor of sculpture at Grossmont College invited me to the foundry in May to observe an end of semester bronze pouring and the forging of the Uruk-hai scimitar. Wilsterman is proud of the school’s state of the art sculpture facility that was built in 2007. It includes one of the largest operating foundries of any educational institution in the state with much of the equipment acquired through donations and grants. It’s designed to teach students about sculpture and techniques like lost wax bronze casting.
"What we do here is rather high tech," Wilsterman said, "We use a ceramic shell medium which is a form of silica and it is a material that can resist heat very well so we make waxes for the lost wax process, waxes are then encapsulated in these molds and then we take the molds and heat them, the wax runs out and we can replace it with bronze or another metal."
Sprague’s project employed a slightly different technique that required first making a sword out of wood and clay.
"I’m making the ridge," Spargue explained as he pressed clay onto the wooden template for the sword, "There’s a little part that goes out in a triangular form from the blade and it forms the blade part going down. Just little detail stuff."
The template is then placed in a wooden box, covered with powdered graphite that is carefully pounded so that when inverted, it creates a mold into which the liquid bronze could be poured.
Bronze runs about $8 a pound and requires such intense heat that anyone working with the molten alloy has to wear the same protective gear as a firefighter.
"We use a Mifco furnace, it is a very hi-tech, high velocity furnace, it runs at about 1.2 million BTUs," Wilsterman said, "And we take it up to about 2300 degrees to melt the bronze and then we pull the crucible out which is the container that the bronze goes into, then we take and clean the mold, the material by scraping the dross, which is the contamination on top of the metal and then we take and pour it into the molds."
The molds can be either ones made through the lost wax process or ones like Sprague made for the orc sword, which took a little extra care setting up and casting.
Wilsterman encourages his students to take on fun projects like this. He is a mixed media artist whose Helix/Padre Dam Cloud Project can readily be seen off the 125 freeway. Public art projects like that have long been a passion for him, and he wants to pass that on, which is why he has been working on new curriculum so a new and more fitting degree can be offered to students.
"Where it is more specific to the facilities and that we can offer students because now have these new capabilities. So the degree is going to be called Sculpture and Public Art, it’s been a long time dream of mine to sort of weld those things together and teach about them, there’s not a lot of people that train artists to be public artists they learn about how to make sculpture or about how to make paintings and other things like that but they don’t really teach them about how to function in the public context and that’s been something that’s my specialty," Wilsterman stated.
Sprague’s project may be more personal that public but it’s providing him with a learning experience as he takes his sword through all its various stages.
"I am about to continue cold forging the Uruk-hai scimitar," Sprague said as he repeatedly hit the sword with a ball pein hammer, "And giving it a few more hits, the texture there is all cold forging and just going to straighten it out a little bit more but it’s all part of the process."
This process and many others available at Grossmont’s Sculpture department aren’t taught on many other campuses. Plus, where else can you get extra credit for forging an orc sword.
You can also check out my NPR story about preparing all 7 hobbit meals for a "Lord of the Rings" movie marathon. This year, the orc sword made an appearance and guests passed the scimitar around with loving care.
Companion viewing: "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy"
