At the arts center..........

Open studio: Casting

Khnum Showed up for the first time last week. He had a few fine African Egyptian motifs, Thin carved models carved from hard wax.He wasn't familiar with the whole casting cycle but he had done his homework. He just had the wrong sized flask. We showed him the size of the centrifuge and gave him a quick lesson in spruing and all the general guidelines of out short process.
Unfortunately Khnum is ambitions and he likes to move on with his work. (This is actually a good quality.) The pieces that he cast last week came out fine and he had already strung them up and done beadwork with lapis lazuli and hematite. This week he came in pretty late with another impressive intricate Egyptian carving. We had trouble finding a flask to fit it into, and when we did there was very little margin for error. I showed him that he would have to keep the model close to the button, and run sprues up from the sides of the button to Keep the piece inside the flask. I also warned him that Time was really short and he had to put the flask in by 6:00. Then I got involved in my own work because I might be able to finish a simple bracelet model for the oven. When Khnum had the flask prepared he had already exceeded the length of the flask, and he added another neat carving, so we had to tape the flask to extend the sides. At this point the piece wouldn't really fit the armature of the centrifuge, but he wanted to go ahead and invest.
Well another bummer in casting.
Now I know why some teachers become Authoritarian. If I were teaching the Class I would Have said "No," Make it fit and "You can't cast tonight." Especially considering the work he put into the model. Our workshop Operates on the Shaky Model of Teaching. We all have slightly different background in the work.Gloria has the most experience and the best technique, but because she is only a monitor, trying to work on her own waxes, she doesn't have much influence. Like the rest of us she can only Suggest.
There are good reasons for The Suggestion Model of teaching as opposed to the Authoritarian Model. Naturally talented artists , like Khnum, observe, and imitate. That is why natural realism and portraiture are important elements in our culture. We all model our behavior on others, even while we assert our individuality. A process or technique can be a means of producing 'Art,' but it can also be a goal in itself. The word 'Art' can represent an object or a process. Since the term can be used to designate methods and techniques