We call him Mr. B.
Mr B enters the shop and says:
– I would like to order a gold ball that will weigh one kilo.
Yes, I answer, it was a very unusual order, come back in 1 week and I will think about whether I can undertake the assignment.
It felt surreal and I wanted to see if he would come back. In the meantime, I did some research on how big such a bullet would be, 46 mm in diameter.
OK I thought now I’ve learned it now we’ll see if he comes back.
1 week later Mr B arrives and is still interested…
Now I’m starting to think about how it’s all going to work, I’m starting to call around to a few foundries I know, someone said it was too much, a smaller ball might work, another didn’t respond to my request at all. Then I began to think that I have cast large things in bronze myself, had an exhibition at Konsthantverkarna in 2009 and the largest I cast then was 30 kg, (my husband and another strong friend lifted and poured into the mold) now it was actually only 1 kg it was about it should work.
I’ve had good help from a couple of colleagues who helped to both think and push, of course it’s possible!
After a while, Mr. B and I had agreed on the finances and I could get started!
But with the help of my cool colleagues, we cast the ball one day in April and everything went very well!
Then processing the gold has really been an experience, I have done very little in pure gold, increasing and decreasing old wedding rings is the experience I have, now I had a ”lump” of 1.5 kg of pure gold on the bench that needed to be made in order.
I needed to buy an extra 0.5 kg to have when I cast. Extra material is needed to create a print, so to speak, for the form to be filled in properly, so there is a so-called ingot and air ducts attached to the ball that is to be sawed off and then a nice surface must be made on the ball.
It was hard to hold, tough to file, and difficult to get a shine in the gold, when you work in 18k it is very easy to get it shiny, but fine gold doesn’t really want you have to rub extra hard, but it worked!
I feel a great deal richer, I have had the chance to try something unique,
Thank you Mr B!
Annika
