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PERMANENT PATTERNS FOR SAND
Like their lost wax counterparts, PERMANENT PATTERNS for sand casting are intended to survive the metal castng process intact. This allows the pattern to be reused again, for instance when casting a large edition; unlike the lost pattern sand method described before, which is strictly a one cast per pattern process.
For our purposes here, permanent master patterns for sand casting can be divided into two principal groups; those intended for casting at COMMERCIAL FOUNDRIES (also sometimes known as JOBBING FOUNDRIES), and those intended for casting at ART FOUNDRIES.
Design works destined for commercial founding can include items as diverse as sculpture, large scale architectural detail as well as mass produced decorative features – door handles, escutcheon plates and similar furniture. Whilst the categories of work handled by various founders are somewhat interchangeable (art founders may occasionally cast architectural works, and jobbing founders may occasionally cast artworks), there are often notable differences in the presentation of the master patterns submitted to each of the two types of foundry. These variations in pattern preparation reflect the quite distinctive methods employed by art founders and commercial founders to produce sand casts. Although it is fair to say that fine art foundries and jobbing foundries can potentially take on similar types of work, it is also often the case that the master pattern (ie the artitst’s design or template), has to be designed and prepared specifically for either an art foundry or commercial foundry destination in mind.
Most permanent patterns for sand casting in an art foundry are fundamentally the same those that are cast in lost wax. These studio constructed patterns are often easily recognisable as sculptures and design objects in their own right. In other words, the basic pattern supplied to the foundry recognisably follows the same forms and contours as the finished cast. This is not always be the case within a commercial founding environment, where the layout of the master pattern is influenced heavily by the demands of a mass production process. As will be explained later, commercial patterns are often constructed on a ‘modular’ system, and this can mean that a master pattern looks somewhat unlike the finished cast it produces.
PATTERN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS >
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