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The Very Beginning:
- Delinda's first step in creating a sculpture
(whether in glass, bronze, or ceramic) is taken by sculpting
in clay
- or wax to create an original work. The
original is usually damaged or destroyed in the next steps: the
mold-making process.
Photo #1 Right: "Transparent" (front view),
from the Being Series of Delinda's works, in its first stage,
a clay sculpture.
Photo #2 Right: "Transparent" (side view).
Photo #3 Right: "Transparent" (back view).
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- The First Mold-Making Process
- (for Glass, Bronze or Ceramic):
 
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- Once completed, the original is
taken to Delinda's mold-making studio where: 1) She creates a
rubber mold. The rubber mold can be a complex process, sometimes
taking several pieces to complete the whole, 2) A "mother"
mold is created to encapsulate the rubber, giving it support,
3) Hot wax is poured into the rubber/mother mold combo, creating
a wax copy of the original, 4) The wax copy is cleaned and burnished
to become the template for making the refractory mold into which
either the bronze or the glass is cast or a mold into which the
ceramic is poured or pressed.
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- Photo #1 Left: Isaac Chavez, Delinda's studio apprentice,
is mixing a batch of silicone rubber to be used on an original
in the rubber mold-making process.
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- Photo #2 Left: A rubber mold in process. This particular
original will be later cast in bronze to become a part of a bronze
and kiln-cast glass sculpture.
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The Kiln-Formed Glass Process:
- Delinda takes the wax copy, sprues and
vents it, and makes a mold over the wax that can withstand the
heat of the glass process, but is soft enough to remove without
breaking the glass after it is cooled and rigid. Some molds are
more complex and require 2 or more parts, venting, and/or reservoirs.
Once the mold material is carefully mixed, poured or applied
in layers, and hardened, the wax is steamed out of the mold,
leaving a hollow negative space for the glass to fill. The mold
is either air-dried for several months or force-dried in a kiln
before the glass is added and fired.
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- When the mold is ready for the glass,
numerous techniques may be applied in order to fill the mold:
1) pate de verre (a paste of glass) can be carefully packed in
layers along the walls of the mold, 2) chunks of glass of different
sizes may be strategically placed into the mold, 3) sheets, slabs
or large chunks of glass can be suspended in a reservoir above
the mold, or 4) the glass can be heated in a second kiln and
poured in its flowing state into the mold. Delinda employees
all of these techniques, depending on the sculpture and the effects
she wants to achieve.
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- After the mold is packed and ready to
be fired, it is carefully placed into the kiln for firing. The
entire firing process can take up to two or three weeks to complete
(depending on the thickness of the casting) and involves several
imperative steps to create a successful glass casting: 1) the
mold is slowly heated and held at a specific temperature to burn
off certain elements within the mold, 2) it is strategicly taken
up through higher and higher temperatures so the glass will flow
properly into the mold, 3) it is continualy raised until temperatures
between 1400 and 1550 degrees Fahrenheit are reached, where the
glass fully flows into the mold, 4) the kiln is very slowly cooled
and held at specific temperatures on its way down to allow for
flux and annealing of the glass, 5) when completely cooled to
room temperature, the molded glass is finally safe to be removed
from the kiln.
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- The glass is then divested (the mold
material is carefully removed). The cast glass is then cold-worked
to achieve the artist's desired finish. Finally, the glass is
prepared for mounting.
- Delinda further incorporates kiln-formed
elements into some of her sculptures which are made by fusing
smaller sheets of glass or frit to which Delinda has applied
various techniques: painting, gold leaf, metal inclusion, enamel,
mica, irrids, etc.
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- Photo Above: Refractory molds being made by applying
the refractory material in a layering process.
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- Photo Below: The wax is being steamed out of a
refractory mold at Delinda's mold-making studio, adjacent the
"Artifex Gallery" in Taos.
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Three different stages of filling an
open face mold utilizing a pate de verre technique. |
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The Bronze Process:
Once the wax copy is completed, Delinda
takes the wax to the foundry where it is prepared with sprues,
a refractory mold is made, the wax is burned out of the mold,
and the molten bronze is poured into the mold. The foundry divests
the cast bronze from the mold. Delinda receives the bronze from
the foundry and takes it back to her studio for finishing. The
bronze is "chased" (de-sprued, sanded, and blasted),
finished to fit exactly to the glass, drilled and threaded for
mounting, a patina is applied, and the sculpture is then assembled
and mounted.
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The Ceramic Process:
Once the ceramic copy is removed from
the mold, it is re-finished and then air-dried to become leatherware.
The leatherware is placed into a ceramic kiln and fired to the
temperature appropriate for the type of clay utilized to become
greenware. The greenware is removed from the kiln and a series
of glazes are applied and re-fired to achieve the final color
and finish of the piece. The work is removed from the kiln and
prepared for assemblage with the glass elements of the sculpture.
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The Finish:
Some of Delinda's work is entirely glass,
but she loves the challenge of combining the glass with bronze
or ceramics to achieve a particular desired artistic statement
and effect.
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In The Artist's Studio:
     
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