Dressage at Devon Commission Design
2025 was the 50th Anniversary of Diressage at Devon. I was thrilled to be allowed to work the Devon Logo into some specialty items for the gift shop. My work typically takes a near 3D approach and is created by carving in wax, add drip by drip, carve and add... until I have the best I can build in wax. Next I will cast by the Lost Wax Method here in my studio. The wax is surrounded by a high heat stone in a round metal flask. Once set, it goes into a burnout oven where the wax and all residual gasses burn out clean. This takes several hours.
Next the needed metal is weighed, x 2, for extra needed for cooling. The metal is melted with a hand torch [ propane and Oxygen torch]. Once molten, the hot flask is removed from the oven with tongs, and laid down in a spinning machine, called a centrifugal casting machine. A pin releases and the machine spins the molten metal into the hot mold in a split second. Then I wait for it all to cool. Once cooled, so it is not a cherry red color, I can quench in a bucket of water. Once I can handle the metal flask, I can tap the flask with a hammer until all the stone material beals apart and the cast piece is free.
The casting is a bit rough. The next step is sand blasting to clean of all traces of the stone material. [ There are still many more steps! And this is actually done from start to finish for ALL my work!] Next, the extra metal, called a button, is cut from the design, with a handpiece, like a dremmel, with a carbide disc. The bulky cut area is smoothed out with a bulk grinding wheel. Now the fine work begins in metal, Various sand paper discs, rubber wheels, diamond burs and steel burs complete the suface finishing. Next is a tumbler that finely taps the metal into a semi polish look in a special acid bath. Finally, tripoli and rough on a buffing wheel. Clean and scrub with hot soapy water, and the design is complete!
The Devon design is a horse and rider in full tack and garb, side view, at a trot. The horse sets on an oval. I added "50th Anniv" along the top and "Dressage at Devon" along the bottom of the oval. The completed designs included a Buckle, pendant, earrings, ring, zipper pulls, key fob and ornament! A huge highlight for me was to present the visiting master Class Coach for the Thursday evening event a Belt and Buckle...and it was nione other than Ingrid Klimke!! Such a delightful down to earth lady!! She even sent me a note in the post and autographed photo I now have framed in my Studio!
Check with the gift shop to see what they will be carrying for your purchase!!