A mystery solved?

Cleaning off the layers of old paint continued this week with outstanding results. A lot of experimentation has led to my use of a combination of soft stainless steel and brass brushes and I'm making good headway. See for yourself below in a few before and after photos:

At one point in time a suggested preservation method for zinc was to seal it in paint.

Later it was discovered that alkyds in the paint ate into and destroyed zinc.

Stainless & brass brushes: better than Noxema for removing old makeup!

 As I've spent quite a bit of time researching our old girl I've come across a bit of a mini controversy regarding both her gender and nationality. I've heard her described as Native American, Greek and Egyptian. As a few final layers of paint fell away the details of her previously paint-covered headdress were revealed:

While I'm no expert in Egyptology this certainly looks Egyption to me.

Headdress detail.

Cleaner by the day!

Well hello, beautiful! Where have you been hiding?

Our lady in repose. As you can see, the headdress is fairly elaborate.

I fully anticipate more discoveries next week as I dig deeper. Stay tuned!

Phase I: Cleaning

Before I can begin the mold-making process all of the layers of old flaking paint must be removed. The reason behind this is not one of aesthetics but of practicality: the flaking paint, which resembles fish scales in places, would be captured in the mold rubber and would have to be removed during the wax-chasing process in order to get the clean finish that I'm striving for. The mold rubber that I will be using can capture the detail in an insect wing (for example) so removing as much surface "noise" as possible from the zinc casting will enable me to make a cleaner mold and reduce time and labor later on down the road.

Her arm still covered in the paint that was once applied to "preserve" her.

A close-up: you can see that I have my work cut out for me!

Hey, would you look at that; I made a clean spot!

Close-up: while some paint still remains this is at least a usable surface to mold from.

Next week I'll be back in the studio again for, you guessed it, more cleaning! This process is very time consuming so I'm going to be in Phase I for a while.  Look for more updates here as progress continues.

Cheers!

The Waterbearer arrives!

Several weeks ago (with the kindly assistance of Lynchburg's Director of Public Works, Dave Owens, and his very capable crew), the broken body of the Waterbearer arrived at my studio. She was carefully transferred to wooden pallets and moved to her new temporary home.

(Special thanks to Laurie Goodman Lenz for the photos!)

I do apologize for this late posting (I've had this post ready to upload for two weeks now) but it was unavoidable: all the crazy weather here has made it impossible. The power has been going on and off daily and an uprooted poplar tree on the hill behind my house severed the phone line and knocked out my internet. I'm finally back online and barring any further weather related mishaps hope to keep this blog updated on a much more regular basis.

Next update: The cleaning process (aka Phase I) has begun!