Sculpture

The Sculpture Shop at Buck's Rock is an open-air studio where campers make the most open-ended projects. Unlike other areas at Buck's Rock, sculpture is not defined by a single material or set of processes, nor is it confined to two dimensions. Campers can construct anything--well, almost anything. They may weld and forge steel, rivet aluminum, carve stone, mold body parts, and cast in bronze. Some campers arrive with detailed plans (for example, for a piece of furniture), some with a more exploratory idea (perhaps a metal scorpion), and some with no idea at all of what can be done. These campers will be directed to the metal junkyard at the back of the studio, where they may find inspiration from years of accumulated treasures.

The staff of the Sculpture Shop is ready and able to train campers to use all of the equipment. To begin a project, campers may use a plasma cutter (which uses an electric spark), an oxy-acetylene cutter (which uses a gas flame), or a variety of electric and manual saws. For welding, campers may choose between a MIG welder, an arc welder, and several oxy-acetylene setups. As finishings for their pieces, some campers choose paint, but they also have access to electric grinders, wire brushes, and a sand blaster (which shoots pressurized sand, cleaning and etching a surface).

The biggest perk at the Sculpture Shop is the twice-per-summer bronze and aluminum pours. In the weeks leading up to the pours, some campers make carvings out of wax, and some make casts of pre-existing objects or body parts (with algiform, the blue material which your dentist uses in your mouth and which picks up excellent details). These are then invested in plaster and poured in metal.

The brilliant works of art made in the Sculpture Shop should be sized to fit in campers' family vehicles for the return home at the end of the summer, but if campers wish, they may donate work to be displayed permanently on the grounds of Buck's Rock. The staff of the Sculpture Shop give hope to the hopeless, soul to the soulless, and inspiration to the uninspired.