Art in Little Harbour - The Johnston Foundry
By Alice Bain

Johnston Studios was founded by Randolph Johnston, who moved to Little Harbour in 1952. Bronze art work has been designed and cast by the Johnston family there ever since. Resident artist Richard Appaldo explained the process of casting hot bronze as he stood by the furnace feeding bits of scrap bronze into a crucible. The furnace is fired with diesel fuel and attains temperatures in excess of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit in order to melt the bronze.

"Today we will be casting two coral legs for a table, an eighteen-inch dolphin, a turtle that Pete Johnston designed and two spiders and a frog that I designed.

The smallest piece is about six inches long. We are melting about two hundred pounds of bronze for the cast."

The process of casting bronze is quite complex. The original piece is generally modeled out of clay, and a latex cast is made of it, from which wax replicas can be produced in quantity.

The wax replicas are used to make the molds for the final bronzes. They are "gated," that is, they have wax rods attached to them to provide the bronze with an entry into the mold, and "invested," dipped in layers of colloidal ceramic slurry and silica sand to form a clay shell around the wax.

This clay-and-wax combination is then fired in a kiln to remove the wax from the mold. About 14 percent of the wax is collected for reuse, and the rest of it is vaporized in the firing process.

At the end of this a hollow ceramic mold is produced that is strong enough to contain the molten bronze. The molds must be "sounded" before they are used to make sure they are solid. An investment that rings like crystal when it is tapped is usable, and one that makes a dull thud is no good. Some small pieces are clustered like grapes in a single investment, and larger pieces are invested separately.

The foundry recycles all kinds of bronze and brass fittings. At this casting an old propeller, some pipe valves and a brass skeg are amongst the bits and pieces being melted down.

Richard adds some bars of tin to the mix. "The mix of bronze depends on what we get - but we aim for a mix of 85 percent copper and five percent each of zinc, tin and lead." The crucible - the pot that the bronze is melted in - is made of graphite and silicon carbide and needs to be strong, light, and resistant to high temperatures and thermal shock. It takes the furnace three and a half hours to get hot enough to melt the bronze.

Just before pouring, a few beer bottles are thrown into the crucible to act as a "flux" - they melt and trap slag and impurities in the molten glass which floats on top of the bronze. The flux is taken off the top of the molten bronze with a piece of steel rebar, and the bronze is ready to pour.

The investments need to be hot out of the kiln in order to take the bronze without shattering, so pouring the pieces is a two-man job. Richard is joined by Greg Johnston, the third generation of Johnstons to live and work with bronze in Little Harbour. Together they are suited up in heavy canvas clothes, work boots and silvery heat-resistant gear.

The investments have to be removed from the kiln and set up to be poured only one or two at a time. They are at about 1000 degrees Fahrenheit when they are being handled - very hot indeed! The bronze is even hotter - it comes out of the furnace at about 2100 F and is poured at between 2050 F and 1850 F. Greg and Richard work in tandem, setting up investments and guiding the stream of glowing molten bronze into the openings at the top.

A crowd of tourists watches at a safe distance from the studio floor, and the end of the successful pour is greeted with applause. The investments can be broken within hours, and the bronze pieces will then be ready for "chasing" (removing flaws in the metal from the surface) and the patina chemical, which gives the bronze its green color.

Patina can be almost any color though. Pete Johnston says one of the best methods is to tie a bronze to the dock between the tide line and let the sea do its work on it.

Johnston Studios is also an art foundry school and has been taking apprentices for years. Richard Appaldo himself was Randolph Johnston"s last apprentice. He helped finish the portrait bust of Sir Milo Butler that stands in Rawson Square in Nassau, and also one of Randolph"s most famous works, The Seven Ages of Man. Richard worked with Pete Johnston after Randolph"s death and has now been living in Little Harbour for the past eight years as a resident artist.

Johnston Studios and Little Harbour see 30,000 tourists annually, and the gallery and foundry give tours to over 2,000 schoolchildren. Little Harbour itself is an expanding community and now has close to fifty year-round residents.