The Glen Sinclair Memorial Trophy

I try to keep the blog to be a bus related blog, but sometimes there are things that I just need to share. This past week I made my annual pilgrimage to Manitoba for the annual golf tournament that I take part in with my brother Shawn, my father-in-law Ron, and numerous other close friends. It's a long way to travel for bad golf on a good course, but truth be known it's not about the golf. It's about the brotherhood.My father was a big part of this weekend as well, truth be known it was why I would drive for 12 hours, to golf with him.
As some of you know, cancer took my Dad Jan 2012. The organizers of the golf tournament asked if they could commemorate my fathers contributions over the years to the tournament by creating the Glen Sinclair Memorial Trophy for the winner of one of the flights. It seemed to be a natural fit that the trophy was created by Shawn and I.Well....more Shawn than I but Ron and I both had a small part in this.

This is a speaker made from Mvuli wood. It's the equivalent of an eastern African Oak. Ron and Verna had them made when they were in Africa in the 60's. They returned home with them, and although they have not been used as speakers for a few decades, they couldn't bear to simply throw them out. Last Fall Ron brought them to my place to see if I could use the wood for anything.

So I tore them apart, sanded and planed, mitered, routered ...

sanded,sanded and sanded some more.

There! The base was constructed.

Now on to the sculpture, there is no rushing the muse...can't rush the muse...the muse doesn't move on anyone's schedule but it's own. And really you can't accuse Shawn for poor time management.....he is simply the vessel for the muse. But just for the record I was about to find the muse and strangle the little bu#@#.
But in true Shawn form he pulled it off, in an amazing creation. Here he is placing a porcelain cast around the wax mold.

The cast could go on no thicker than 1/8", and had to be a final thickness of 5/8". Each layer took at least an hour, or two to dry. Then ~4 hours in the kiln burning out the wax....

Finally the bronze ingots are melted in the furnace, and the casting happens. FYI this is the highest stress point, if something goes wrong it happens here, and there is no second chance with this mold.

We all held our breath as Shawn devested the casting....The detail was intact and beautiful

For the nest 4 hours I watched Shawn push bronze around... fascinating to watch a master at work but think of it like listening to someone playing a musical triangle for HOURS!

And the final Product, after it's all said and done I believe we created something that is worthy of bearing our fathers name.