I have been an admirerer of Clay Foster's sculptural work for a couple of decades. Over the years we have become friends and correspondents but we had never collaborated on a piece. The opportunity arose this year, and I'm very happy to present our piece, Ceremony, which combines my cast bronze bowl and Clay's architectural stand that is inspired from African cultures.
I learned how to make a two-part rubber and plaster mold for glass casting, which is also useful for bronze casting. I used a bowl I had previously turned from maple for the mold. Part of the two-part mold includes a reservoir that can hold the glass pieces for melting in the kiln. When I cast the first of the wax replicas of my bowl, the reservoir made it appear to be sitting on a stand, which, in turn, reminded me of Clay’s wonderful ceremonial bowl series.
After the bronze casting was released from the mold and separated from the reservoir, I asked Clay if he would be interested in doing a collaboration. Luckily for me, he said “yes.” I worked on achieving a patina on the bowl and then sent it off to Clay.
His stand is beautiful, I think. I hope you agree. The piece is 9.5 X 3.5 X 3.5 inches (24.1 X 8.9 X 8.9 cm), made from cast bronze, wood, brass brads, and grout. The bowl is solid, which means it’s heavy (3 lbs!).
This will be in a live auction on Friday, July 16th during the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) virtual symposium 2021. I’ll post a link when it’s available for bids. In the meantime, here are our artist statements and background information:
Clay's Statement:
Ceremony is born deep in the belly of ancient stories, and lives on in the emblems of ritual, becoming sacred by generations of use.
Andi's Statement:
Working with bronze has an element of ceremony in that the coordination of the team during the pour feels ritualistic. The steps are always the same: melt the wax out of the mold, put the mold in the sand pit, remove the crucible and carry it to the pit, pour the molten metal, wait for it to cool. It's highly choreographed with each participant's role clearly defined - very akin to ceremonial activities.
Andi: I recently learned mold making for glass casting at The Ohio State University, and used one of my wood-turned bowls for the exercise. While in the process of glass casting I was given the additional opportunity to learn bronze casting. The wax castings from the 2-part mold I made reminded me of Clay's Ceremonial bowls. When I removed my bronze cast bowl from its casing I knew I wanted to collaborate with Clay to bring the piece to life. We both love old bronze artifacts and African art, and have bronze pieces from Africa in our personal collections. We wanted to emulate the patina found on these artifacts, with areas that are worn and shiny from much handling.
Clay: This is the first collaboration piece by Andi Wolfe and Clay Foster. It is also the first piece Clay has made in over two years because of health reasons, and future production will be limited.
Donate Life organ donation registration (https://www.donatelife.net)
Clay received an AAW Honorary Lifetime Member Award in 2017. You can read the article about it and find out more about his incredible work here: https://www.woodturner.org/common/Uploaded%20files/POPMeritAward/2014Foster.pdf
