Hey, nice camera!

Those pics turned out reaaaal nice, Tobes. Here are some of my own!

Blacksmiths have big vices (says Jim)

Jim had some radical iron-ironic t-shirts.

Here's the furnace before:


And here's the furnace after:



And here are my head models, made in modelling clay:


The middle guy was made in air-hardening clay which wasn't ideal, particularly if you've got what are called "undercuts". The gurning guy with the teeth above the middle dude is an example of a model with undercuts.

Effectively, these heads were put into resin-impregnated sand when it was still soft, so all the bits inside the mouths behind teeth and up the noses etc were captured in the softness. But once the resin sand hardens, about 30 mins to an hour later, you've got to get your models out. If they're made with something that's hard, like wood, for example, you'll wreck the resin sand mould by forcing it out. So I was able to pick out all of the bits of still-soft clay after the resin sand hardened, thus keeping the undercuts intact.

More info on how they became cast iron later!

Indeed, forthcoming posts include a How To for those inexperienced in the great art of iron casting.

My favourite part of the week? Breaking Agas with a sledgehammer. Now why didn't I get a shot of that?