La Katia Artist Residency | Colombian Caribbean

Community challenge: How do we connect to waste as a resource?

Project: 3 week project to transform this community’s biggest waste product (aluminum cans) into a resource for creative expression.

Part 1: Building Aluminium Foundry

• Materials sourced from scrapyard

• Creating a furnace as the center of the heat and a crucible, the vessel to hold the melted can

• Heat powered with hot air and coal

Part 2: Lost Wax Casting

• Create wax forms (sculptures, tools, jewelry, etc.)

• Attach wax forms to wax tree

• Investment casting - create a mold with a ceramic shell

• Cure the ceramic mold / melt out the wax

• Pour aluminium

Outcomes:

• Workshops run for the local community (designers, engineers and artists visited)

• Process established for transferring aluminium cans into a valuable material

• Exposure to the casting technique and a new creative process