If variety is the spice of life, my job is providing a pretty spicy ride. All universities provide an array of diverse wonders on a regular basis, but not everyone working there has quite the E ticket that I do—it is my job to document such things.
So today, dressed like a Christmas cupcake in red velour pants and a Christmas sweater covered in happy little snowmen, I entered the extremely blokey underworld that is the sculpture room where metals are cast. Armed with my glorified point-n-shoot like some kind of hybrid between Martha Stewart and Persephone, I took pictures of the process involved in casting bronze statues. Three men completely covered in safety gear like welding masks, leather aprons and footwear only a vulcanologist could love hefted the molten bronze in crucibles glowing orange as lava. The mold is preheated to 1000 degrees so it won’t shatter as the liquid metal is poured.
My cheeks were still glowing from the heat as I snapped up my down jacket and headed back through the snow to my office through an unsuspecting campus devoid of students at the end of the term.
So today, dressed like a Christmas cupcake in red velour pants and a Christmas sweater covered in happy little snowmen, I entered the extremely blokey underworld that is the sculpture room where metals are cast. Armed with my glorified point-n-shoot like some kind of hybrid between Martha Stewart and Persephone, I took pictures of the process involved in casting bronze statues. Three men completely covered in safety gear like welding masks, leather aprons and footwear only a vulcanologist could love hefted the molten bronze in crucibles glowing orange as lava. The mold is preheated to 1000 degrees so it won’t shatter as the liquid metal is poured.
My cheeks were still glowing from the heat as I snapped up my down jacket and headed back through the snow to my office through an unsuspecting campus devoid of students at the end of the term.
