Friday Giveaway! Aluminum Casting Workshop!!!

Happy Friday everyone! We've all been busy here getting ready for the first weekend of January workshops (Aluminum Casting and Oxy-Acetylene Welding)... Interested? We are giving away 1 spot in our 1/19 Aluminum Casting Workshop! It's a great way to get  you back into the swing of art making after the craziness of the holidays.  

For a chance to win, please visit our Facebook page, "Like" us,  and leave a comment on the giveaway post. For an extra chance to win, share the post! A winner will be chosen at random on Monday 1/14! Good luck!

THIS WEEKEND: Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Aluminum Casting Workshops!

Oxy-Acetylene Welding at the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym

We still have some spaces in our January workshops, with the first batch coming up this weekend, so if you are interested please contact us ASAP!

The Aluminum Casting Workshop is a 7 hour workshop where you will learn how to make a simple 2 part Greensand mold of a pattern and then how to cast the piece in aluminum. Each participant does the entire process from start to finish and will have a finished piece to take home with them at the end of class. No prior experience is necessary.

Aluminum Casting Workshops

Saturday, January 12  *8 Spaces Left!*

10am - 5pm,  $50 per person 

Saturday, January 19  *1 Space Left!*

10am - 5pm,  $50 per person

Saturday, January 26  

10am - 5pm,  $75 per person

The Oxy-Acetylene Welding workshop is a 2 hour course that will teach the basics of gas welding. Each participant will have a chance to weld and because of the small class size, one on one time with the instructor. No prior experience necessary.

Oxy-Acetylene Welding

3 Person Workshops, $40/person

January 12              January 13

9am - 11am (FULL)  9am - 11am (2 Spots)

12pm - 2pm(2 Spots) 12pm - 2pm

4pm - 6pm                  4pm - 6pm    

January 19              January 20

9am - 11am              9am - 11am (1 Spot)

12pm - 2pm             12pm - 3pm (FULL)

4pm - 6pm               4pm - 6pm (2 Spots)

January 26              January 27

9am - 11am               9am - 11am

12pm - 2pm(2 Spots)12pm - 2pm

4pm - 6pm (2 Spots) 4pm - 6pm(2 Spots)

To sign up or if you have any questions, email Programs Manager Jenny Welsh at PSGJennyWelsh@gmail.com

THANK YOU!

A huge thank you to everyone who came out for POST 2012! We had a great crowd and really appreciate you all taking the time to come see the space and check out what we are up to!

Another big thanks to the amazing and fabulous volunteers that are helping to make PSG happen...Molly, Brynn, Jenny, Jen and Gus, this weekend and this place would not happen without you! A special thanks to Gus for teaching everyone the casting process. We did 9 pours in 2 days: 7 aluminum and 2 bronze, poured by 5 different people (including 2 newbies, Rose and Kriss!) Check out the photos below to see some of the process!

 Olivia making a sand mold

 

 Poured shoe prints

 Furnace set up

 Side view

 Brynn pouring...

   

 Kriss pouring...

and Rose pouring!

 Our flasks!

   

 Molly making a sand mold

 Brynn ramming the sand

 We cast a bunch of PSG medallions...

  

 Hot furnace!

  

 Gus's work...

 Brynn slagging the aluminum

 Brynn suited up for grinding!

 

 Justin getting ready to pour bronze

 

 ...using tongs to remove the crucible...

 

 ...picking up the hot crucible with the shank...

 

 ...pouring...

and done! 

Thanks again to everyone!!!!

Weekend Recap

A huge thanks to everyone who came out this past Friday for the opening reception of Process Show: Wood! It is an amazing exhibition thanks to the following artists: Lewis Colburn, Ryan McCartney, Barry Parker, Stephanie Pierce, Ben Quinn-Kerins, George Schwab, John Shoemaker, Geoffrey Thompson, Kevin van Zanten, and Andrew Wilkinson. If you missed the opening and want to come by, we are here on weekends from 11-6 and will be open for the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (October 20-21!)

Here are some shots from the evening!

 

 

 

And at the end of the night Eric and Johnny of Eric13 came by and played for us. It was amazing...

Sunday was extra exciting too...the PSG A-team was there (and we all got the black hoodie memo apparently!), we did an aluminum pour, thanks to Gus (I got to do the pour! !!!), and we almost finished up the ramp, thanks to Brynn, Jenny and her Dad!

 This is a quick little thing we made to test out what we're planning for the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours!

Making a sand mold...

 

 

 Drying out the sand once the mold was opened...

 

 

Tiny furnace! 

 

 Poured! (You'll see the finished item soon enough...sooner if you come to POST!)

 Jenny and her Dad!

 

 

 

Jenny testing out the ramp, aka Nap Slope.

Tiny Aluminum Pour!

Last night, between rainstorms, we got to see a tiny outdoor aluminum pour and it was incredible.

 

It started off with the tiniest little crucible I'd ever seen...

  

...and the cutest little furnace (I understand that tiny and cute are generally not words that go with pouring molten metal but I feel they are fitting...so there.)

  

Even though it was her first metal pour, Olivia was far more concerned with the puddles than anything else.

Getting set up...

 

...and fired up!

 

 And because one fire is never enough, we had to light another one for cooking veggie hotdogs...

 

That's the aluminum being put in through the hole in the top of the furnace so it will melt down.

 

Such a fabulous set up that Gus made.

Preheating the ingot mold on the edge of the furnace.

Scraping off any slag off of the molten aluminum.

 

Almost ready to pour! See how the crucible is glowing? It was so beautiful...

Poured! 

Gus poured the aluminum into sand molds he had made, and I was lucky enough to see him make another on the spot after pouring the first two, which he then poured into for a total of 3 castings. I would've taken photos of the sand mold process but Olivia stole my phone at some point. I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon so not to worry...