Flippy Flappy lost his wax
You may recall I recently called at the foundry to check out the wax casting of Flippy Flappy, the puffin I couldn’t let go of?
Well today I had another trip to the foundry. The wax casting had been dipped in ceramic shell and was to be put in the kiln today to melt the wax, leaving a hollow shell (called the “lost wax” process).
The process didn’t disappoint – fire and melty wax then time to clean up the ceramic shell ready for the bronze pour.
Once the bronze had been melted, it was poured into the heated ceramic shells and left to cool before being gently persuaded with a hammer to come away from the bronze.
Next the pieces are all assembled and fettled, which is a big job!
Arthur and Billy
I wasn’t alone on my road trip over to Liverpool today.
I had two more little puffins with me ready to begin their transformation to bronze – Arthur Flap and Puffin Billy!
Well, I thought they’d look nice with Flippy Flappy as a set of three!
Formby Beach
The last time I had a trip to Formby, it was to see the red squirrels, but when I called today it was full of people walking dogs and the kids were on half term holidays. My fault, I should have checked. Needless to say there were no squirrels out and about, and I didn’t see a single bird on the beach which was worrying to say the least!
