The Haller Fountain

The Haller Fountain

The Haller Fountain in Port Townsend was donated to the town of Port Townsend by Theodore N. Haller. It had first been displayed at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893. Locally known as the Galatea Fountain (after the sea nymph represented).

As a side note: Haller Lake is a small lake (15 acres, 36 feet maximum depth) in the north end of Seattle, not too far from where I grew up. For a number of years, I attended Haller Lake Methodist Church and had the opportunity to occasionally swim in the lake. It was named after Theodore developed lake front plots in 1905. It wasn’t until I was researching this image that I discovered the connection.

Memory Vault

Entrance to the Memory Vault
Entering the Memory Vault
Seat of Contemplation

The Memory Vault is an installation at Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, Washington. The plaques on the pillars are poems relating to the feeling of the environment at the Fort. It is a pleasant spot to reflect on our place in the natural world and our impact on it.

Casting Bronze

Hot Metal
Pouring Hot Metal

For a while I worked at the Pratt Fine Art Foundry in Seattle. I really enjoyed working with metal. I had started with (gas) welding steel, but when I found out how much fun working with bronze was, I was hooked. I worked at developing skills with various styles, many times using natural objects instead of wax models. I cast apples, banana, onion, artichoke, and small trees. I tried casing a trout once, but that didn’t work so well. And the folks in the foundry claimed that when it was in the kiln, it attracted all the neighborhood cats (not likely).

Below is one of my favorites: my hand. I made a model by dripping hot wax from a candle on my hand until it was covered and when the wax was cool and hardened, carefully removed my hand. Then I poured the art wax into the model, removed the candle wax and cast what was left. I was quite pleased with the fact that most of the skin texture and fingerprint patterns showed up.

Unfortunately, all the plaster dust just gave me one sinus infection after another and I had to retire my foundry work.

Need A Hand, Anyone?

Lost Banana Process

Bronze Banana

I spent some time at the Pratt Fine Art Foundry and I really enjoyed it. But I was drawn to the technical aspects of pouring bronze and the challenge of the “post production” work. There were times when I was just wanting to take natural objects and see what happened when you used the investment casting process. That process was typically known as “lost wax” due to the use of wax models that evaporate during the time in the kiln. One particular failure was the “lost fish process” when I tried to make a cast of a rainbow trout. There were comments that the neighborhood cats where all hanging around … but the bones all ended up in the bottom of the bronze and were just a mess.

The lost banana was much more successful.

  • Camera: Nikon D850-
  • Lens: Nikkor 58mm
  • ISO 100 2 sec f/16

Alberta Spruce

Alberta Spruce by Allan J Jones Photography
Alberta Spruce

This is another of my bronze sculptures that I updated my portfolio photo of recently. For this one I investment cast a live dwarf Alberta Spruce. The challenge was to do the clean up work afterwards without losing all remaining needles. The branches make a wonderful range of sounds when you tweak the ends.

I invite you to visit my website (https://allanjjonesphotography.com) to view my photos in a gallery format. I also have some photo essays of hiking in the Olympic National Park and some examples of other art I have done over the years. Thank you.

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