Dave's Journal
July 2008
I am introduced to Sandy Spaziani who has just spent two years in Grenada as a Peace Corps Volunteer. We each share our "stories" of what we do...
She is a specialist in " special education" working in a poor rural school in Grenada. I am a "teaching artist" working with kids in schools here creating life-sized bronze sculptures. Our total introduction and "visit" lasted about 10 minutes !!!
July 2008 - a few days later ...
Sandy is back in Grenada and I receive an email asking if I would be interested in doing a sculpture with the kids in the school she has been volunteering at. There is a catch... this is a poor rural school with no money, materials, or equipment, and no foundry for casting the bronze. I think for a few minutes and email her back, " Absolutely... Let's do it! "
July thru December 2008 - Figure it Out!
Now... How do we Do this ?! I have done over eighty artist residencies here in the States, but nothing as CHALLENGING as this. Here in the US I have a "state-of-the-art" bronze casting facility, with EASY access to all materials, supplies, and equipment. First... No Budget. hmmm. Over the years many, many schools throughout western NY and PA, have been very supportive of my "artist in residence" programs. I am in a good place in my life right now because of all of this wonderful support. I figure this project will take approx. two months from clay to the finished bronze. I decide as the first step to block out the months of February and March of 2009 and volunteer my time on this exciting adventure. Sandy makes arrangements to take care of my food, while the school arranges an apartment for these two months. GREAT! We're off running. Now the fun part... supplies materials and equipment.
November thru December 2008
I begin by making a list of EVERYTHING to complete a life size bronze figure in Grenada. The list is long! There is no foundry, so I will build one in their community and teach some folks from the community how to cast metal and assist me. I discover that there is a "scrap yard" on the island SOMEWHERE, I will find a welder. My plans are to build much of the foundry equipment once I get there. There is very little in the way of foundry "supplies" so my plans are to ship most of these materials ahead of time.
I begin assembling packets of information outlining the challenges and goals of this particular residency, working with the kids in Grenada. These packets are then mailed to several companies and corporations with whom I have worked closely with over many years, along with a request seeking donations of supplies and materials.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Dave ends up in hospital to have surgery to repair a hernia. Great Timing! In three weeks everything needs to be crated and delivered to the shipping yards in Brooklyn, NY. to make it's way to Miami and on to Grenada. In five weeks, February 1, 2009 my flight leaves for Grenada. I hope I'm a Fast Healer!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
It’s 3 am and I am about to leave for New York City (Brooklyn to be exact) from my studio here in Jamestown. There is about a foot of snow on the ground and the thermometer says 0 degrees! My good friends Bob and Barb Knobloch have been helping me build and pack a crate filled with many of the supplies I will be using to do the sculpture. Most of the companies I have written letters to requesting donations have been incredibly generous. Thank You, thank you many times over!!! The crate is four feet by five feet by four feet tall and filled to the brim. Everything will be on a ship in Brooklyn Friday and by Tuesday be in Miami, Florida and then on to the “islands” including eventually Grenada. Everything should arrive in Grenada about the time I do the first week of February. More later……I have an eight hour drive ahead of me!
Monday, January 26, 2009 ~ Sandy Spaziani
I am emailing Dave a photo of the school for the website. It is the first time he will be seeing it. Everything is coming together and I can't believe it! We received notice from the shipping company that the crate will be arriving this week. Dave is coming on Sunday. We are getting really excited. I have been given a list of things to locate here on the island and I have found most of them. I have to check on some plaster of paris and a propellor of some kind. Dave is coming at a really exciting time in Grenada as February 7th is Independence Day. Grenada became an independent nation on the 7th February, 1974. It is a big celebration here. Everyone will be dressing in the national colours...red, green and yellow. This is also the month for sports and Saraka. I will right more about Saraka later. This is going to be a fun, busy and exciting month.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Amazing how quickly the past few months have flown by! Ready or not the show goes on and I am on center stage starting Monday Morning in Grenada! I have tried to think of everything I will need or can do from here in the states to be prepared for this project but at this time what is not figured out here I will figure out when I get there! Connie and I are heading to Cleveland tonight so I can catch my flight early tomorrow morning.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
A loooooong day! I was up at 4 AM to catch a plane from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago. I then flew from Chicago to San Juan, Puerto Rico. In San Juan I had a FOUR hour wait to catch a small plane to Grenada. I arrived in Grenada at 9:15 PM and was met by Sandy and and her friend, ,Shawn Ley, at the airport. Though it was dark, I am excited to see Grenada during the day to see the country side and the small communities we pass along the way in the dark as we head to Grenville where I will be staying. Tomorrow I will visit the school to meet the teachers and Kids I will be working with the next two months. Great news upon arrival .......... the crate I shipped from NY arrived in port! I understand there is now a lot of "administrative" work to get the crate released and here to the Belair school. We will begin working on that tomorrow! After much visiting it's about 1 AM (which is Midnight) back home in western New York. There is a one hour time difference here and I found out that Grenada does not do Daylight Savings Time. Time for bed.......more tomorrow!
Monday, February 2, 2009
I was up early, Sandy who is a Peace Corp Volunteer (PCV) took the day off from working at her job with the Education Ministry of Grenada to show me around. I had to go to the bank and exchange some money. The currency here is about $2.57 for every american dollar. For all the kids following I exchanged $300. US Dollars so how much was that in Grenada Dollars? I had a chance to walk around Grenville which is the second largest city on the island. Only St. Georges is larger. By US standards this would be a large town of roughly 15,000 people. There are lots of little shops, a huge fish market and a large downtown Market for finding most anything the people of Grenada would need on a daily basis. The streets are narrow, lots of people elbow to elbow, making their way through the streets. We find the local "Bus Station" which are made up of vans (think soccer mom!) They PACK PEOPLE IN and just when you think they can't possibly fit any more they add two more! Once we are off the roads are VERY, VERY windy as most of Grenada is steep mountains and lush green jungle with beautiful streams cascading out of the mountains. Cars here have their steering wheels on the RIGHT side of the car and everyone drives on the LEFT side of the road. Grenada at one tme was an English Colony and that is how they drive in England. I believe that 
ALL bus drivers in Grenada secretely want to be race car drivers because they all drive very fast around very sharp corners with no guard rails and VERY NARROW ROADS!!! Cars fly by with inches to spare and dense jungle or a steep cliff on the other side......very exciting!!! We drove up to the school in Belair about ten minutes north of Grenville. There I had a chance to meet and visit with Mrs. Peters, the Belair Government School Principal. I was introduced to the teachers and to most of the students. Tomorrow I will be in the classrooms with the kids as we start the process of figuring out what the sculpture will be of and what it will look like. The school is very "Modern" by Grenada standards and is a concrete block building with spacious classrooms. It sits on top of a mountain with an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains and down to the ocean. Everyone is very excited to meet me and is very "surprised" that I am there, not believing I would really come to do a project like this in their school. Tomorrow we begin!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
I drive in to Belair with Mrs. Peters, who is also generous in providing me an apartment to stay in for two months during this project. This frst week I will be working with Grades 3-6 as we develope our ideas for the sculpture. I have third and fourth grade combined first thing in the morning, about forty kids. Our theme is "Books, stories and people that have inspired us." Third grade is a bit challanging as they are not at the same reading and writing level a third grade student would be here in the United States. But they are excited by the project and worked very hard coming up with ideas. They have very little resources to work with and their books seem to mostly be first and second grade level or popular Fairy tale stories like "Snow White", "Cinderella", The Lion King", Beauty and the Beast" and Every one knows "Scooby Doo"! Any students out there who would like to start a bookdrive to donate books for the kids here in Belair to read, that would be awesome!!! Think of what some of your favorite books are and which ones may have inspired you?! Later in the morning I worked with Sixth grade and after lunch I worked with the Fifth Graders. Lunch here is provided every day for the kids and for Artist Dave. Today was fresh, spicey fish (not sure what kind but I would like to learn more about the fishing industry here and what is caught), with rice and green beens. Everything FRESH and delicious.....no frozen fish sticks here! All in all the first day went well. I took a bus back here to Grenville on my own and find it is pretty easy to get around.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Today was an exciting and festive day at school! All the children and many of the teachers were dressed in green, red, and yellow as they prepare for their "Independance Day" celebration! Beautiful dresses, flags and banners, lots of singing and dancing, special treats of icecream and cake and fun and games marked the day. In the morning we had a guest speaker come to the school to speak. Mrs. Maria Viechweg is the Social Studies Curriculum officer for the Ministry. She inspired students by remembering the past, looking toward the future and talking about what it means to take pride in being a Grenadian! The photo shows Mrs Viechweg in the middle with her husband, Jervis Viechweg, who is the science curriculum officer at the ministry, with Mrs. Peters to the left, the Belair Government School Principal. I had a wonderful and insightful visit with these interesting and accomplished folks during lunch. Twice today I had a chance to sample the infamous "Breadfruit", once boiled during lunch and later roasted over a fire. It was good but clearly has a distinction of its own unique flavor and texture. I believe it is more like a vegetable than a fruit and perhaps more like a doughy bread. Breadfruit is found in many Grenadian dishes. There was not much in the way of classes today so we will select the final sculpture idea first thing Monday morning!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
All of Grenada was in celebration for their "Independance Day" which started last night with music and dancing in the streets of Grenville. Families from all over Grenada made their way to Grenville last night. Every street was packed with musicians, food, and entertainment. The Grenadians sure know how to have a good time! At midnight all were entertained with a spectacular fireworks display. I particularly enjoyed watching the children as they danced and sang to the rythm of the evening. You could tell that it was truly a heart felt celebration, filled with pride and much emotion.
Monday, February, 9, 2009
First thing this morning I had all the teachers read the stories their kids had written and narrow each class to five "finalists". I then read all the classes andwith the Principal, Mrs. Peters, assisting me, chose our sculpture to create. We will be doing a fifth grade student, Shernell Fletcher, from Mr. Wildman's class. She wrote a wonderful story, inspired by the stories of the past where everyone shares what they have. She is wandering down the road with a big
basket of fruit and everyone she meets she shares with them, handing them perhaps a mango, a guave, a coconut, or an orange. The sculpture is of her, with her basket in the right arm, handing a banana, with her left hand to an elderly woman from down the road. The growing season here in Grenada is year round and people believe no matter what people have or don't have no one should ever go hungry! I saw that much like in the United States, Kids are similiar world over and most of the kids wanted to do a sculpture of them playing "Sports" (especially the boys! Cricket is their national sport, followed by running and track and "Football" which in america we call soccer. Heres a challengeto the kids back home in the United States.......can you look up and learn the rules to "How to play Cricket?" Once we had our sculpture idea then I took measurements to see how tall she was, how long her arms are and how long her legs. From these measurements I then went and visited "Bob" who helped me do the welding of a steel armature. We found we couldn't weld this particular day at Bob's studio so he took me to another friend "Michael" who was busy welding an old Toyota pickup truck whos frame had broken in half. Bob andMichael were GREAT and by the end of the day the armature was welded in the pose and mounted on a wooden base we built back in Bob's shop. Bob has been a furniture maker for twenty years and has a wife and seven children! Thank you Bob and Michael!!!! Tomorrow we start the clay!
Tuesday, February, 10, 2009
Today we finally started the clay!!! I had the pre-K, kindergarden and first grade help today. Tomorrow will be the second, third and fourh grade helping with the fifth and sixth grade helping on Thursday. Everyone was amazed to start seeing a foot and a leg! A little bit every day......one piece of clay at a time, they all add up and soon a sculpture begins to appear!
Wednesday, February, 11, 2009
We keep plugging away! Seems many people from around the island are hearing about the "sculpture project" at Belair School and coming for a visit! What a wonderful and exciting thing that so many people are interested! A few more Photos to see the progress. The first is Sandy on a rare day off to visit the school and help put some clay on. Mr. Burke is a former teacher of Belair School who stopped in for a visit. Mrs. Patricia Felix is the area Education Officer who oversees all the schools in the District. She is very interested in sharing the project with all the other Principals and have them come for a visit.
Sandy, Mr. Burke & Mrs. Patricia Felix add some clay.
Monday, February 16, 2009
We are making great progress on the sculpture and it looks like we should be completed with the clay by Thursday and possibly Friday at the latest. Our next step will be the plaster molds but still no word on finding "Plaster of Paris" in any kind of larger quantities. We have word all over Grenada and we have folks looking for us in Trinidad, a much larger and more industrial nation. Hopefully the folks in Trinidad will come through....soon! I am running into some "Technical Difficulties" both with my computer and with my camera! I have a battery charger for my camera battery and it has been charging and says "charged" but for some reason when I go to "click" the photo it says "Battery not charged". Anyone out there with ANY advice please email me!! So for right now no pictures as I try and find another camera I could use. Also my laptop seems to be sending messages out but to all you folks who perhaps have been emailing me........I am not ignoring you.......I am just NOT RECEIVING ANY "Inbox" messages. Colin, my web, email, and computer Tech Guru is working on it as we speak (if he's received my messages!) A little note to all of you following this project on my web site. Colin Shaffer, an adjunct Professor at Jamestown Community College, designed my web sight as we see it today and has done a fantastic job! He is also my 'Link" to all of you! I send him emails, photos and updates on what is happening down here in Grenada and he takes everything and puts it on the web for me. Thank you Colin for all the work you continue to do and supporting this project. For all the kids following this adventure, it is important to know that even if it is my name that you know, this project would not be happening without the dozens and dozens of individuals who have stepped forward to help make this project possible. TEAMWORK and bringing people in to be part of your team is important when tackling BIG projects. Include them in your vision, let them be excited too! It is amazing what you can accomplish this way!!!! More to come....
More progress on the sculpture!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 ~ Sandy Spaziani
Well, Dave is really progressing with his sculpture! He has been here now a couple of weeks and is doing well. Along with the Plaster-of-Paris, we are trying to find a product called Shellac. Shellac is a clear varnish (paint) that is made from bugs! Yes, that's right kids, bugs! And, it seems to be difficult to find the real thing. There are alot of subsititutes that are what we call synthetic, meaning they are man-made, or not made from bugs. Dave needs the real thing. I am trying to source it in St. George's.
Dave had a great Independence Celebration and even ate oil-down. Oil-down is the national dish in Grenada. I find it is very tasty! When ever there is a big party or event, they will very often make oil-down. It is a kind of stew, in that everything goes in the pot. You have many of the local foods such as breadfruit, the local yams, and dumplings; you have chicken, fish, and pork all in the pot. You season it wth fresh coconut milk and other tasty seasonings. And of course all your provisions are in the pot as well. Provisions? Provisions are considered their own food group. It consists of banana, plaintain, blugo, and dasheen (a local root), among others. Plaintains and blugos are varieties of bananas. They are sweet and nice.
There are many many kinds of fruits in Grenada, but it is most known for its spices. That is why, of course, it is called the Spice Isle. Grenada is the world's second largest exporter of nut-meg. What do you use nut-meg for? Did you know nutmeg grows in a tree? It grows wrapped in a yellow flesh until that busts or splits open. When it does you will see the small round nut wrapped in mace on the inside. The mace is a red vine like substance around the shell of the nut. It too can be used to season food. They have many many other spices here as well such as cinnamen, clove, anise, and tamarind. Can you find out about these other spices and what they are used for?
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A very busy week! We have he sculpture completed in clay!!!! She looks fabulous and everyone here is getting very excited about the process of casting her in bronze. In the photos she is not yet holding the basket of fruit or handing a banana to someone. We will do those parts directly in wax and then to bronze. At this point you will not see the complete sculpture until it is finished in bronze! We are still challenged by the lack of large quantities of "Plaster of Paris" on the island. We have some larger bags located in Trinidad but with their "Carnaval" (which is like Mardi Gras) in progress we dont know when we'll see it. The boat comes in every Friday and it wasn't on this weeks boat. Hopefully it will arrive next Friday! In the mean time we have searched the entire island of Grenada buying small 4 lb boxes, two and three at a time in every hardware store and lumber yard. We scored BIG when in St. Georges we found two cases in one store! This was about 72 lbs.......we need about 400 lbs to make all the molds!!!! So we are looking and networking everywhere! We found about a case on the island of Caracou with a boat coming in on monday. Hopefully all these little "Finds" will add up and we'll be able to get the plaster molds made! The arms and head are removed and ready to start the molds on them first thing Monday morning. After we make the plaster molds we then start pouring the wax. I believe we are pretty much set with everything we need for that stage and then it's on to dipping the waxes into the ceramic shell{Refractory}. Before dipping the waxes we need to coat them with what I usually use is a "Shellac" Which I thought we could get here on the island.............sorry....most people here never heard of shellac... so I am trying to find a suitable substitute! More on the role of shellac later! This past week I was invited to speak to a group of Principals at their monthly meeting. I gave them each a piece of clay and guided them through a similiar experience of what I do with the children in the schools. All the Principals got to "Play with Clay" for about 45 minutes as we talked about left brain and right brain thinking, learning "how" to see, the power of "Visualization" and getting kids to learn to "Challange Myself"! I believe everything went well...it was encouraging to see a number of the Principals taking notes! enjoy the pictures....more next week with "Plaster Molds"!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A busy week! Little by little we are collecting "Plaster of Paris", a little here, a little there. We have been all over the island of Grenada, have received a box of Plaster from a friend of a friend of a friend of someone who knows someone in Caracou who shipped it to us on another friends boat and it found its way to us yesterday. Today it is all used up and we are about 100 lbs shy of what we need but are still looking. Mr. Pope, a sixth grade teacher in Belair has a cousin in Trinidad who found us about fifty lbs of Plaster and it should be here tomorrow (Friday) morning. We have yet to hear from our other Trinidad contact.....I fear having a good time in "Carnaval".......maybe after Carnaval is over! Everyone is excited and volunteering to help find this or that which is wonderfull. This project is definitely pulling together many many people from all over Grenada to make this project happen. Many folks from the Ministry have come up to Belair School and they are all very supportive and excited to see the sculpture take shape. Folks are also learning there are many steps and a lot of work to create a life size bronze Figure! This Sunday will be one month since I arrived and it has flown by so quickly! I fear the next month will go by just as quick and there is still lots to do! Next week will be pouring all the waxes and gating in wax each section. Hopefully the following week we begin dipping the the waxes in Ceramic Shell. So far so good time wise, we are still on schedule! A special greeting and "Kudos" going out to Lori Eugair, a sixth grade teacher in Glens Falls, NY who has organized a book drive at her school and wanted information about shipping books to Belair School here in Grenada. Schools all over Grenada are desperately in need of good books for their kids to read.
The address here is:
Belair Gov't School
Attn: Mrs. Elizabeth Peters
Belair, St. Andrews
Grenada, West Indies.
All schools wanting to do this let me know. Please send "Good" books that have inspired your kids. Maybe have the kids put an inscription on the inside as to why they liked the book with their age, grade, school, and town/state they are from. This may make it a little more meaningful for all the kids involved both sending and receiving! Thanks again, Lori, in Glens Falls, NY!!!!
Part of the upper arm ready for plaster. A thin metal shim is used to cut the arm in half length wise. We are careful there are no undercuts so the plaster will pull off the clay arm without ripping the clay. We then coat the shim and clay with vaseline and/or cooking oil. I usually paint it on very thinnly and then wipe it off so it leaves a very thin coating, enough for the plaster to stick without running off but also enough so when we are ready to take the mold apart it comes apart easily
Arm with shim and first thin layer of plaster.
Half of the arm is covered with about 1 1/2 inches of plaster and we are ready to do the other half. I spray the edges with paint so I can tell exactly where the seems are. This makes it easier when I go to take the mold apart. I then vaseline/oil this half and apply plaster.
All the pieces, the head, arms basket and fruit are done seperate and now I am ready to do the main body. I start with the feet....each fot is done in two sections. The next layer up is done in FOUR sections....a front, a back, and two side pieces. Each layer up from here up I believe I can get in two halves... a front section and a back section.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
To everyone following along, I apologize if I've been a bit slow in keeping these up dates coming........I promise to do better! We are FINALLY finished with all the plaster work! I honestly believe there is not a single box of plaster in the entire nation of Grenada anywhere at this moment (and we put a dent in Caracou and Trinidad as well!)!!! We ended up being about six boxes (24 lbs) shy of what I needed to finish. Molds were super thin and I stretched and took shortcuts where ever I could but we were still coming up short. I ended up making some "Clay" molds instead of plaster. I then coated the clay with cooking oil and painted wax onto the surface, let the wax cool and then soaked the whole thing in water to let the clay and hardened wax seperate. Definitely not the prettiest molds (or waxes) I've ever done but we're going to make them work! I have poured all the waxes and they look great. Today I started cleaning the waxes up, adding additional detail where necessary and started the "gating" system. The whole sculpture is now in multiple pieces and will be cast in sections. Each section is gated.......this is how the bronze will eventually flow in to that section of the sculpture such as a leg, or arm, or the head. After we have the wax with the gating system attached we are then ready to start "dipping" in "Ceramic Shell", the refractory which will surround the wax. I hope to have all waxes completed by this weekend and start the dipping process next Monday. It takes about one week to complete the ceramic shell. Friday we have an old "Cement mixer" being delivered.........which will be what we are going to use to keep our ceramic shell "Slurry" going....24 hours a day for a week. It is gas operated so we will be checking around he clock to be sure she keeps mixing! Lots more photos coming very soon!
Today was "Sports Day" here in this "District" of St. Andrews. A district is much like a county back in the states. All the kids from all the schools in St. Andrews had a day of track and feld competition to compete and find the best athletes from each District. Then All the Districts in Grenada meet in St. Georges for the national competition. This is a huge event here in Grenada with many people showing up to cheer on their schools. I stopped by the park where everything was taking place this afternoon and it was a very festive event. Of course I had to cheer and yell "Go Belair"! It's always fun to see kids away from the school and have them come up and talk. Out of respect and politeness all male teachers are referred to as "Sir". Ummmmmm......perhaps the kids back in the states could take notes of this.......being referred to as "Sir" all the time! (And I have never even been "Knighted" by the Queen!) And finally for tonight, as it is getting late, I am fascinated by the number of people here who love to fly kites. Especially the boys, who with a hand full of twigs, some string and a plastic bag build their own kites from scratch and some of these kites really soar! Long tails of cut up bed sheets (a prized possession!), knotted plastic bags and even several LOOOONG tails of an old video tape (unwound) dancing under a kite hundreds of feet in the air! They also have a way of having the kites make noises like loud mosquitoes or a propellered plane buzzing overhead. I will try and get some shots of kite making and flying before I leave. more to come....
Sunday, March 8, 2009
A busy weekend working all day Saturday and just got home about 8pm on Sunday. All the waxes are now gated and ready for starting the ceramic shell. I have not been able to find any shellac in Grenada so I have tried using lacquor to coat the waxes before we start the dipping cycle. The ceramic shell is a water base material while the wax is oil base. Soooooooo...what happens when you try and put oil and water together? In most cases the first coating of ceramic shell would not stick very well and has a tendancy to fall off. The shellac (or in this case varnish, hopefully!), neutralizes the surface tension so the ceramic shell will stick to the wax in a nice even coat. I'll let you know tomorrow after our first coat how it works! The two boys are Davis and Franklin who spent one morning helping to clean the work space and did a great job! The other photos are of the waxes gated. The first head shot is after it was taken directly out of the plaster mold. You can still see the parting line down the middle of the face, wax by the ears and under the chin. All of this is "cleaned up" and detailed and then gated as you see in the other head shot. Lots of pieces to cast!
Week of March 9-13th, 2009
Well Folks, just when you think you have pushed yourself as hard as you can, you realize there is always room for "just a little bit more!". Today is Sunday and I am just now getting a chance to share with you this incredibly busy and exhausting past week. As you know we are on a very busy and tight schedule to complete a life size bronze figure from start to finish in a two month time frame. The waxes of the sculpture were complete, all gated and ready to start building up the ceramic shell (refractory) around the waxes. This requires twelve seperate "Dips" as you submerge the waxes into a tank of this slurry, pull the wax out and let the slurry drain off and then coat the slurry with a special sand. This is considered "One Dip" and we need to do twelve, letting the ceramic shell mold dry COMPLETELY before doing the next "dip". In my studio I normally do about one dip a day. Here was my weekly schedule: Monday morning I started the ceramic shell mix which consisted of fifteen gallons of coloidal silica, four bags of fused silica flour, and three gallons of water. A little electric motor with a propellar is usually sufficient to keep the mix stirred, which HAS TO KEEP MIXING 24 hours a day for the entire dipping cycle. As long as it is mixing it stays a liquid.......as soon as it stops mixing it begins to harden up. After much searching for a motor with no luck and figuring out the alternatives, we decided to use a cement mixer! So everything is mixed and by noon I do my FIRST DIP of the waxes into the ceramic shell. I do the second dip at four pm and then a third dip at midnight. The cement mixer is working great but runs on gas which has to be checked and refilled about every four hours......sooooooooo..... to keep an eye on the mixer that it keeps running and to keep gas in it I decide to just spend the night there at the school. I put eight wooden chairs together, (four on one side and four on the other) and that became my "bed". After a very sleepless and "noisy...imagine a lawnmower running outside your window ALL NITE LONG!)night, Tuesday I was up at 5:30 and did dip # Four with dip Five at noon and then dip six at ten pm. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday where two dips a day.......one early morning and one late night. Each dip cycle took a couple hours to go through. I ended up sleeping at the school every night to keep the mixer running and during the day when I wasn't dipping the waxes in ceramic shell I was over at Michaels welding shop building all the equipment needed to melt the metal and pour the bronze. We built from scratch an entire foundry with all the tools and equipment in three days (wed., thurs., and Friday)! Monday we are ready to go and start pouring bronze!
Gas powered cement mixer and ceramic slurry being mixed
The waxes after starting the dipping cycle
Michael Phillip's welding shop
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
An interesting last couple days! The cermic shell molds are ready to go, the equipment is built, BUT some last minute "little Things" which should not be a problem have been holding us up. It was an amazing feet to get two tanks of propane here. OK Kids....pay attention here.....we need a large VOLUME of gas to draw from because we draw the gas off pretty quickly. Propane is actually a liquid which turns to gas. If you draw the liquid off too quickly you can actually FREEZE the liquid in the tank not allowing any more gas to be released. By using two tanks and drawing propane off of both at the same time it lessens your chances of the tank freezing especially as the tank gets low on fuel. This is not a problem say to run your kitchen stove and a hot water tank in your house because you draw a low amount of fuel and not so fast. Because we are using a lot of gas very quickly to heat a furnace high enough to melt bronze at 2000 degrees F. we need a larger volume. The one company refused to leave two tanks which we ordered two weeks ago. We called another company and they delivered two tanks today. We then had to have special lines run from the tanks to the furnace and couldn't get what we needed here locally so Hugo, had to run to St. Georges to get the parts. We got everything hooked up and ready to go about 4pm this afternoon. We can not find a blower motor ANYWHERE on the island.....soooooo....lets try a shop vac which vaccums and blows. Most here have never heard of a shop vac, but a couple did and we found two. The first started smoking and stopped working within ONE MINUTE of being used! The second was a little hand held device like you would use in your car and though it did work I shut it off because no way that was going to keep blowing for the next eight hours without it burning out! So we're back to square one trying to find a blower of some kind to force and mix air with the propane.....propane will not get hot enough on its own to melt bronze. You add forced air to it and it will get hot enough.
Sooooo we continue our search, hopefully soon because this needs to be poured into bronze and welded together before next thursday to install for a Friday, March 27th dedication!
These ceramic shell molds are READY TO GO!
" Hey, what's going on over there? It looks like they are building a life size bronze sculpture! "
Wednesday, March 23, 2009 ~ Sandy Spaziani
Well, what a week we had! We found a blower motor through a company that rents a Bouncing Castle. This is one of those big blow up rooms you can go in and bounce all over the place, jumping and falling without getting hurt. The kids here love it and Waggy T from Waggy T Rentals was kind enough to rent us the blower motor they use to blow up the castle for our project. He even gave us a discount on the price! So we gathered up everything we had and began to melt out the wax. As each piece was put into the fire the wax fell out the bottom into a big barrel. After each piece had all the wax removed we started the bronze pouring. This was an exciting day for all of us. They began melting the bronze early in the morning. It takes about an hour and a half to melt two chunks of bronze for one pour. We had 6 pours to do. Can anyone tell me how many hours it took to do all the pours? In order for the bronze to melt the fire had to reach a temperature of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. In Grenada, they use Celsius for their temperatures. Can you convert 2000 degrees Fahrenheit into Celsius and tell me how hot the fire had to be in Celsius terms? Many people came around to help with the pouring. One person alone cannot do the pours so Mr. Pope helped Mr. Poulin as did Mr. Wildman and others. Everyone was very excited to see the bronze pieces as they cooled. We had to smash the ceramic shell off with a hammer and try not to damage the bronze.
Now that we have all the bronze poured, Mr. Poulin is working on welding them all together for the final stage of the sculpture. We have to find a nice large piece of river stone with a flat top to be the base of the statue. On Friday of this week we will have the unveiling of the statue and a little cultural ceremony to go with it. We are almost there!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thank you Sandy for keeping the updates coming with news on melting the wax out of the molds and then of course, finally the BIG DAY of casting bronze! I have definitely been going at it from early morning 'til late night the past few weeks. Something about setting deadlines and trying to meet those deadlines! Well the castings turned out pretty good......we had a couple small things that didn't quite cast right but for the most part I have been able to repair them during the welding phase. This week has been welding and grinding all the welds as we fit all the sections together. The sculpture is ALL WELDED TOGETHER and looks terrific! Tomorrow morning I'll sand blast the sculpture using beach sand and then put on the final "patina" or coloration. After the patina I'll wax the sculpture to protect it and then tomorrow evening we'll deliver the sculpture back up to Belair School and mount it on a stone base. Friday morning is the unveiling and dedication and everyone is very excited to see the final bronze sculpture! One more long, hard day and then time to relax, enjoy and celebrate!
Friday, March 27, 2009 ~ Sandy Spaziani
Finally, the big day has come. Dave finished all the welding and sandblasting during the week at a welding shop in St. George's. He has been commuting an hour each day this week to get everything finished up and ready for the big day. At the school we have been busy getting invites and all the necessary things ready for everyone to come and visit us for the unveiling. We were pleased to see the Chief Education Officer from the Ministry of Education, Mr. Ogilvie and also Miss Patricia Felix, our District Education Officer in attendance at the event. To the many others who came and supported us, we say Thank You! The children put together several cultural pieces, including the school choir singing "I Believe in Angels" and a play written by our own Mrs. George who teaches Grade 4. Everything went so well. Shernell Fletcher, who won the essay contest and became our model read her essay for everyone. Dave was presented with a gift of appreciation from the staff and students of Belair. Then it was time.
Everyone headed down to the yard. The unveiling was done by Mr. Pierre, a past pupil of Belair Government as well as a retired Permanent Secretary of Education in the Ministry of Education. He was accompanied by Miss Fletcher. Miss Fletcher was very surprised to see herself standing there and couldn't help but look and look at the statue. It was beautiful!
I want to thank Dave for coming to what I now think of as my second home and sharing his talents, creativity, hard-work and kindness with us here in Grenada. He made this wonderful experience possible for all of us and I thank him very much! I hope all of you kids following along on this blog will consider the Peace Corps as an option for when you grow up. It is an amazing thing to see how people in another culture live. It really brings us together as we work along side each other and share in each others lives, happy and sad times. The world really is a bountiful place and an experience such as the Peace Corps opens your eyes to just how much good there is in the world. In a time when we are all talking Peace and seeing war, it is important to realize that there is room enough, love enough, goodness enough, and bounty enough for us all to live together happily. SO turn on those right sides of your brains and be thinking of all the amazing possibilities there are for your futures! You truly can be anything and do anything you set your mind to! Thank you to everyone for your support, your book drives and your interest. May God bless you all.
I leave you now with one of my favorite sayings...
"RISK more than others think is safe, CARE more than others think is wise, DREAM more than others think is practical, EXPECT more than others think is possible."
Thank you
Sunday, March 29, 2009
I write one of my last journal entries from the Allamanda Beach Resort on the beautiful Grand Anse beach here in Grenada. We did it!!!! In just two months, arriving in Grenada saying we were going to create a sculpture in Bronze and some how through all the challenges presented to us...WE CELEBRATE the installation and dedication of a life size bronze figure at the Belair Government School here in Grenada! The sculpture looks beautiful and we have had many many wonderful comments about the project. This past week has been exhausting tring to get everything ready for a Friday dedication. Tata and his son Jason were a huge help as they provided the welding shop down in St. Georges to TIG weld the whole sculpture together. We delivered the sculpture Thursday night around 7 PM to the school. Always an adventure to the end, a gentleman who works in St. Georges doing construction but lives up past the school beyond Grenville offered to pick myself and the sculpture up and take us over the mountains to Belair on the other side of the island. He works construction and arrives with a pick-up truck and TEN GUYS hitching a ride in the back of this little pick-up!
Somehow we squeezed me, the bronze sculpture and EVERYONE in as we headed up over the winding mountain roads. I tried to be cool and calm as I held on for dear life expecting to go around a corner and fly out into a ravine! We all made it safely back (and they do that trip EVERY DAY!). The dedication on Friday went off beautifully. Sandy was the Master of Ceremonies for the event and there were many people from the Ministry represented as well as principals from other schools, parents and community members. It was great to see the support of lots of "new" friends I have met over the past two months who were also present. The Belair students and teachers couldn't wait to see their new sculpture and after the unveiling everyone gathered around to inspect and touch their new treasure. It is always such a thrill to watch the expressions on the childrens faces as they look at the sculpture whether it's here in Grenada or home in the states. There were lots of people to thank and acknowledge as it truly was a COMMUNITY PROJECT. Hundreds of people in a hundred different ways pulled together to make this project happen and it would never of been completed without all their support. So to all of the people of Grenada "THANK YOU!" for having faith, believing in me and believing in this project. I believe we all met the challenge and we "FOUND A WAY", perhaps not neccesarily the easiest way or the best way or the quickest way but we got the job done!!! What we accomplished in two months here in Grenada is an amazing feet and everyone should be very proud of being a part of an historic project!
So I now take a break, sitting on a beautiful beach, reflecting on the past two months and wondering "What will my next big adventure be?!" One final reflection perhaps when I return to the states in a couple days. Thanks everyone!
~ Dave
