Rhapsody by Richard Arfsten Sculpture

Rhapsody To me this piece is pure music. I love classical music and this is my interpretation of a Rhapsody. Besides being a sculptor I am also a founder. I cast most of my own work as I did this piece. I have explained how I cast a piece like this to expert founders. They have told me it is impossible to do what I claim to do. This is a extremely hard piece to cast. I cast this in one pour and there is no grinding on the surfaces as is the way most sculpture is cast. I took me many experiments over many years to understand how to do this work. Basically failure is your teacher. I always try to understand why the pour did not work. In this process, Evaporative Pattern Casting, there are about 50 variables that need to be controlled in order for the piece to look like the pattern which disappears in the process. All the work in making the pattern is lost in the casting process. If it does not work the design is lost forever. I cannot make a duplicate. This is why other sculptors do not use this process. I cannot begin to tell you how many great designs went up in a puff of smoke, literally. Sounds stupid to keep doing something that everybody keeps telling you "it will not work". The first time I brought a foam pattern to the foundry I was told it would not work. "If it does not work I will remelt the metal and do it your way next time" I told him. Everybody was standing around when it was time to open the flask. I pulled the sand away and grabbed the big flower with a tongs and lifted it out. By some fluke it worked! The foreman shook his head and said "I don't believe it". That was like putting your only quarter in the slot machine and hitting the jackpot. I was hooked. The next ten tries were flops. I knew it could work because it did once. I was determined to understand why. Every once in a while I would have a somewhat success. Failure is your teacher if you try to learn why it did not work. Over the next five years I identified about 50 variables. The trick is to control them. In industry they may run 100 test pours to get all the variables working before a run of 100,000 parts. Maybe I just like banging my head against the wall? This design is a maquette to measure off of to enlarge. All the elements are odd shaped boxes. They can be made by rolling a piece of sheet metal and welding it to the other sides of the odd shaped box. Then all the boxes are welded together. Not rocket science or I could not do it. Just a lot of work. If this sculpture interests you there is much more on this site. Go to the upper right top and enter "Arfsten sculpture" in the search box to see many styles and themes of my work. If you have an interest in enlarging this design please contact me about the enlargement rights as they are not part of this sale for a desk top sculpture.