TEK to Tech; Ancient Bronze Casting Workshop

We're pleased to announce TEK to Tech: An Ancient Bronze Casting workshop with Helle Helsner, assisted by Róisín Foley. This two-day workshop will explore ancient bronze working techniques, beginning with participants building their own furnace which they will use to melt and cast their bronze pieces. We recommend this workshop for professional artists as there will be a focus on process and history rather than the end result.

On Day One participants will build the furnaces, carve wax models and create their moulds which will dry overnight. On Day Two the furnaces will be fired up for bronze melting and casting. After fettling, each participant will have a number of small bronzes to take home.

Helle Helsner is a visual artist and lecturer in Crawford College of Art and Design. She is currently undertaking a PhD through Burren College of Art on a MTU staff scholarship. Her research concerns materiality, memory and landscape, investigated through her practice as a sculptor and bronzecaster using the landscape and social politics surrounding the disused Copper mines in Allihies on the Beara Peninsula.
Helle graduated from CCAD in 2001 with a MA by research concerning pre historic bronze casting technology and subsequently set up her own low tech/TEK foundry enabling her to cast all her own work. She has over 23 years of casting experience and has been working in this capacity with makers such as Joseph Walsh, archaeologists including Flemming Kaul senior curator of The National Museum of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has collaborated with Roisin Foley through experimental bronze casting and expanded drawing.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

National Sculpture Factory, Albert Road, Cork, Ireland