I cast a 2nd winged griffin, so I have a pair, needing to clean this one up, attach the wings prime and paint it. I’ll be making a mold of the base “rock” to-morrow. I have enough resin to cast one more. The first pair will be going on my front step, the 3rd cast will be in inventory for sale, these will be sold with an acid stained concrete base they attach to which will help keep them standing in the garden or indoors with a nice heavy base. Prices include shipping and the base, the wings will be attached with bolts like the original 1870s iron ones were,…
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Winged griffin after Hecla iron works
I am pleased with how this turned out, they need a base of some kind and I havent been able to find just the right one, but that rock in the photo is just about right, so I may very well make a mold of it and cast it in acid stained concrete so these can be mounted to them and be securely standing upright. Cut stone is very expensive, about $150 each plus shipping, the landscaping blocks you see out there are all concrete and the wrong size and so forth, so it leaves making them myself. I will probably have these winged griffins with a base for $375…
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Winged griffin after Hecla iron works
The first black resin cast of the winged dragon is out of the mold, looks very good! after the seam lines get sanded down and it gets surface cleaning to remove any oily release agent, it can be primed with black primer and painted gloss black, but that will be after the wings are made and attached with stainless steel machine screws first. It took exactly 8 quarts.
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Winged dragon after Hecla iron works, about to cast.
With the mold now ready to use, I ordered the black resin, 4 gallons worth, if I’m lucky I might get 2 complete casts out of that, or I could be a quart or two short, either way it will be close. I don’t expect the resin to get here this week, most likely next Monday/Tuesday. More photos etc then, I will also have a better idea what time and materials it will take for each and I can calculate prices on these as well as get photos of a finished cast.
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Winged griffin, after Hecla Iron Works progress
I have all 3 molds for this design completed, the largest one- for the griffins’ body is still drying it’s plaster support shell. Soon I will order the black resin needed and can make a couple of test casts. I calculated it will take 7 quarts to fill the body mold and 1-2 quarts for the wings, the resin is not inexpensive!
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Winged griffin, after Hecla Iron Works progress
The 2nd wing mold is now finished, and ready to start the mold for the body of the griffin himself. With the plaster model inside the box built for this, it will have to be embedded halfway with clay and the first half of the rubber portion brushed on with multiple applications, and a plaster shell poured over that. Once the plaster hardens, the box and the clay gets removed and the second half of the rubber mold brushed on, the sides of the box get strapped together to surround the sides, and the 2nd half of the plaster mold made. The box is about 28″ long, 9″ deep, 14″…
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Winged griffin, after Hecla Iron Works progress
The first wing mold is done and a test plaster cast made and fitted to the test plaster body.
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Winged griffin, after Hecla Iron Works
The first half of the first mold is done, to-morrow the 2nd half will be done and the work makes some more progress. The Hecla Iron Works of Brooklyn NY was named after Mount Hecla, an active volcano in Iceland. A fitting name for a design studio and foundry established by two Scandinavians: Danish-born Niels Poulson and his Norwegian partner, Charles Eger. The two men came to the United States at different times in the 1860s, and founded their business in a small office in Williamsburg in 1876, a boom time for building in Brooklyn and New York City. Both men had backgrounds as mason-journeymen, and Poulson had been an…