Casting In Aluminium at Northcliffe

Conisbrough Northcliffe high school students and staff are indulging their artistic abilities in a new casting process directed by Mr Emmet Copley, metalwork master.

Mr Arthur Young, headmaster, who has himself dabbled in the process to produce two notable examples, said this week, “the method is called the “total loss” system, in which we employ polystyrene blocks, which are easily carved with hotwire. We then pour molten aluminium over the model in a mould and the original modelling polystyrene is absorbed to leaving aluminium casting the same form. This makes each model unique, as no mould can be kept.”

Mr Copley thought the process was entirely new, until he heard that similar methods were used in the sculpture of Coventry Cathedral. Students and staff are quite taken up with the process, and we have several excellent sculptures.”