going green with a hint of co2

As you will see the cardboard tubes are built to represent horsetails. The cardboard tubes are the experimental part of this pour because other than the experiment we did at the Mother’s Day Pour at St. Kate's I never knew of anyone ever pouring iron into a car let alone using paper to make a mold.

We then used a different way of making sand cups instead of the material we usually use at St. Kate's. We used CO2 which when mixed with the bonded sand creates a faster set time for the mold. Dish, another artist at the conference said that “he thinks what we were using the material for was a perfect option but recommended that for larger pieces we use something different." ( The catalyzed and resin bonded sand we use at the college.)

We cut cans in half and stuffed them with sand, then poked a hole into the sand and gassed them with CO2. The 13 tubes had half cans at each end; the ones connected to the top guided the iron into the tubes and the bottom ones prevented the iron from affecting the bottom of the car or just pouring right through. I was like a crazy woman chasing people down for cans and going through dumpsters digging out cans. The most popular line I said when I saw someone drinking from one was “Hey when you're done with that bring it over to us.”

A Tamsie line which was repeated by every one else was "Hey give me that thingy." when we were using the CO2. (The CO2 tank has a long hose attached to a very thin steel tube that looks like a straw. This is pushed into the sand which has had sodium silicate mixed into it. It instantly becomes hard on contact with the CO2 gas. - Tamsie) We didn’t add the CO2 to the bottom ends of the tubes but connected them to the car right before we filled the car with sand.