Solstice light

One of the interesting things about living Way Out West is that we're surrounded by artists. Artists of every stripe are a dime a dozen here, and we have the infrastructure to support them. For instance, we have a fine-art bronze foundry right up the road.

For the past four years, the foundry has held a party and night pour on the winter solstice. The community comes over late in the afternoon, partakes of the offered food and drink, they hang with their friends, and at the appointed hour they watch the foundry workers pour bronze into waiting molds. The foundry owners also give tours of the facility and show you exactly what it takes to reproduce a sculpture in bronze with the lost wax method.

First you do an original, out of clay or something else. The foundry makes a rubber negative mold from it, then a wax positive, then a ceramic and sand negative mold. The ceramic mold is fired to cure it, and the wax melted and poured out. Now it's ready for the bronze, which is heated to about 2200 degrees Fahrenheit in a kiln like the one below.

The kiln makes a really neat roaring sound that you can feel under your feet.

The workers put the molds upside down in sand. This holds the molds while they pour the bronze.

Then they take the crucible out of the kiln...

And put it in a halter so it's easier to handle...

and they start pouring the liquid bronze into the molds. Somebody else with a camera used their flash at the same time that I took the picture and made it easier for you to see...

but here they are in just the light of the bronze.