Finishing tHE BRONZE MONUMENT:
AN ONGOING REPORT BY mICHAEL c. irving, ph.d.

How can I Help?

july 2007 we started the final welding for one of the Monument figures.

That's right! After 12 years of planning, workshops, sculpting and foundry work we are bringing one monument figure into its final stages of sculpting and fabrication. For several weeks Vince will fit weld together 57 panels and components into one 11 by 15 foot bronze figure. Then in August Michael and Vlad will help as these heavy units are moved and set up for the grinding and chasing process.

 

April 2007 after being irreparably damaged in an american foundry The Second child abuse Monument figure is completely rebuilt

In the summer of 2005 we found out the quality of the work of one of the Monument figures was gravely compromised through an inferior choice of casting processes. After so many years of work we had to ask, "Do we proceed with what we have even though it is inferior or do we rebuild the quilts of the figure from the original molds of each participants work?" It was a major decision in terms of time and commitment. How could we ever do this?

Andrew Krawchic owner of BLP Bronze International came to our rescue. He worked out a plan with Dr. Irving to cast the figures and gave the space to rebuild the damaged art work from scratch. Eighteen months later Dr. Irving and his team completed a remarkable job of rebuilding a new and finely detailed Monument figure.

February 2007 one of the
Child Abuse Monument Figures
is Completely Cast in Bronze

The last of 57 large pieces of large bronze was cast in the art foundry.

Foundry Plans for the Second Monument Figure
We need to raise several hundred thousand more dollars before we can proceed with casting the second monument figure into bronze. Donations will greatly help with this work.

Wish us luck. Contribute donations if you can. Tell others to make a donation to this incredible cause.

Can I help with completing the building of the Child Abuse Monument?

Collecting HandPrints to place inside the Child Abuse Monument can be a great contribution for helping to create a national visualization for how we want the world to be for children. All we ask is for an outline of a hand to be placed on a piece of paper and for a message to be written about creating the world for children or a message of support for survivors. We will bundle and shrink wrap all these hands and messages and place them inside the bronze monument figures. Examples of the HandPrints collected to date are on the left side of many of the pages of this web side. To read more about the "Helping Hands" Campaign go to the "Helping Hand" web page.

Review the Progression of the Final Phase of the Monument

First an overview of the final steps in creating the monument is presented.

This is followed by a progression timeline in reverse chronological order. You will following our story back from the spring of 2007 to the winter of 2006.

Overview of State of the Monument 2005-2007
Thank you for visiting us during the final stages of building the bronze Monument. So much is happening at this important and critical stage of making and casting the Child Abuse Monument that Dr. Irving will be giving a frequent update throughout 2007.

By June of 2000 all of the original work was done in plaster and wax of sculpting the original patterns for two figures and quilt squares for the Child Abuse Monument.

Initially one of the figures (Figure #2) went to an American bronze foundry but they used a crude sand cast process for casting the quilts rather than a lost wax ceramic shell casting process as they had originally contracted with us. Rather than accept a less than optimal work of art Dr. Irving decided to resculpt the quilts of this figure.

Progression of Figure One
In the fall of 2005 BLP Bronze International a Canadian foundry was paid in full to cast another one of the figures (Figure #1) into bronze.

Many cracks developed in the wax quilts and quilt boarders of monument figure #1 from sitting in changing temperatures and humidity environments for over 5 years. Over the fall of 2005 and the winter and spring of 2006 O'Puck, Cheryl, Richard, Bruce and Dr. Irving cleaned these wax quilt borders up and made silicone molds in preparation for lost wax casting of one of the monument figure's 150 quilt squares.

In the summer of 2006 Vlad, Richard and Dr. Irving made negative urethane molds and positive fiberglas patterns in preparation for sand casting both of the monument figures' heads, sleeves arms and hands.

A monumental step occurred in making the Child Abuse Monument over the fall of 2006. Eric, Randy, Arnold, O'Puck and Dr. Irving sand cast 42 large bronze components for two of the monument figures at the BLP Bronze International foundry.

Through the fall and the beginning of winter of 2006 Vlad, Richard and Dr. Irving were doing the heavy work of sandblasting, grinding and shaping the bronze pieces of the head, shoulders, hands and sleeves of one of the bronze figures and started to assemble and weld them. By mid-winter of 2007 this first figure was fully cast into nearly 60 bronze components.

During the Summer of 2007 Dr. Irving guided the first figure through the welding, chasing, redetailing and patinaing process. Donations will be of great value to us to move along the next stage of building the Child Abuse Monument.

Progression of Figure Two
From February 2006 through December of 2006 O'Puck, Richard, Steve, Vlad, Dr. Irving and drop in volunteers cleaned up and prepared 150 wax quilt squares for rebuilding the second monument figure that was damaged at the U.S. foundry.

From December of 2006 to Mid-March of 2007 Vlad, Richard, Steve and Dr. Irving cleaned up the details of the borders of quilt panel and worked all the wax quilt squares of the second monument figure into their respective quilt borders.

Over the months of January, February and March the team cleaned up the details of the borders of quilt panels in preparation for the final stage of lost wax casting the second Monument figure. As each quilt panel was completed a first protective layer of silicon mould was applied to the 27 finished quilt panels. By mid-march the twenty-seven panels were completed and the first layers of silicon molds were applied.

A Great Thanks to All
The team of sculpting volunteers in the studio were an amazing help in assisting with the work in completing the Child Abuse Monument figures. A heart felt thank you goes out to all who brought the monument along.

Now that the damaged figure is rebuilt and the first figure is completely cast in bronze we are no longer doing Volunteer Sculpting Days in the BLP International studios.

We are grateful to all the volunteers who contributed to this amazing accomplishment.

Much preliminary work occurs in
the foundry before the bronze
is heated to a molten metal.

Casting of the first
"Reaching Out" Monument
figure is taking place at the
BLP Foundry in Toronto
over 2005, 2006 and 2007.

August 21 to September 21, 2006

Over these four weeks O'Puck was making molds and doing pattern work for BLP Bronze. Richard, Vlad and Dr. Irving were making fiberglass foundry patterns of the twelve sleeve components; three shoulder and hand components and two patterns of the head and neck. These component patterns are to be used for the bronze sand casting process. Each week Eric in the foundry is casting several of these component patterns into bronze.

After Dr. Irving's heart attack in June he is no longer doing the Evening or Saturday Volunteer Sculpting Days. Sculpting volunteers are welcome to work in the studio Monday to Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm.

The team of sculpting volunteers in the studio have been an amazing help in assisting with the work in completing the Child Abuse Monument figures.

July 14 to August 18, 2006

Over these four weeks O'Puck continued to work on the set of four Mandalas with Dr. Irving primarily serving as supervisor and teacher to O'Puck's sculpting. O'Puck made a major leap forward in his sculpting training by taking on the sculpting of a relief figure of Saint Santo Nino de Atocho under the supervision of Dr. Irving.

Towards the end of July Richard, Vlad and Dr. Irving finished the clean up of the wax quilt squares for the rebuilding of the second damaged Child Abuse Monument figure. This is a landmark step in resculpting this figure.

Vlad, Richard and Dr. Irving spent one week making urethane rubber molds of the the two eight-foot sleeves of the Child Abuse Monument figures. Each of the sleeves were divided into six mold sections in order to take into account the shape of undercut lines and the size of casting boxes in the foundry.

In a second week Vlad, Richard and Dr. Irving made the twelve mother molds to support the urethane sleeve component molds. Taking these mold patterns off the Monument master was a major milestone in casting both Monument figure -- all the component molds in preparation for bronze casting the head, shoulders, arms, hands and sleeves are completed.

July 3 to 14, 2006

Over these two weeks O'Puck made molds and did pattern work for BLP Bronze. Richard, Vlad and a new sculpting volunteer Sherry did undercuts to the hands and art work on wax quilt square for rebuilding the second Monument figure. It is remarkable how much work they have accomplished over the past month. Dr. Irving worked in the foundry for the first week on a rose and cross sculpture for BLP Bronze and is working with another artist, Mike Maston, on a memorial relief portrait of a man, and a separate portrait of a woman Sara Conner. The second week Dr. Irving went to a cottage for the week and the rest of the sculpting team kept up the studio work.

Mike Maston, O'Puck and Richard worked together on sculpting leaves and wolf prints for a plaque for the City of Markham. The leaves were stylized and looked quite nice. Mike Maston sculpting a Christ figure with that went with a set of four Mandalas O'Puck and Dr. Irving are preparing for BLP Bronze.

June 19 to 23, 2006

This week of O'Puck made molds and did pattern work for BLP Bronze. Richard and a new sculpting volunteer Vlad did undercuts to the hands and art work on wax quilt squares for rebuilding the second Monument figure. Dr. Irving worked in the foundry on Thursday and Friday to meet with the team on a second version of the sculpture for OCE (Ontario Centres of Excellence). Dr. Irving also continued working on a cross and roses that were being worked on just before his heart attack. O'Puck, Elder Vern Harper-Asin and Dr. Irving participated with the Wakinyan Awasis Sculpture Park model at The Buffalo Jump Unity Festival as part of National Aboriginal Day on Wednesday June 21 at Trinity Bellwoods Park.

May 6 to June 16, 2006

Beginning this week reports became scattered during this time as the activities and hours in the foundry became quite hectic. The overwork, stress and hectic pace resulted in a Dr. Irving experiencing a heart attack.

A short note on my heart attack

It is with great pleasure and appreciation that I am here today and with strength and a sense of support from others I move forward through this challenging and inspiring passage.

Saturday, June 10, 2006 I had a heart attack and fortunately had the where-with-all to get aspirin in me as it was happening and my wife got me to a hospital in a very short time. I began a second heart attack on Monday which felt worse than the first and it vividly illustrated to me that I have to take seriously the condition I have created with my relationship to food, exercise and stress. A couple of more angina attacks were just footnotes on the basic message.

In the end the heart damage was not too bad and on Thursday I had an angioplasty with three stents. I was told before hand that because of some irregularities to the arteries of my heart and the location of the blockages in the arteries it was to be a particularly difficult angioplasty and stenting that may end up having to move up into being a double by-pass surgery.

I received tremendous support over the week from many people - to know others care so much.

My elder, Vern Harper-Asin, did ceremony and medicine with me on Tuesday. We did prayers for the Doctor's hands in the evening before and morning of the surgery. Buffalo spirits filled my room for three days. I brought my medicine bundles and ceremonial artifacts with me to the operation room at Toronto General Hospital, one of the best hospitals in the world for the procedures I needed. The nurses set up a small alter near the operating table with my artifacts and just before they began the surgery they asked if I would like to have my two medicine bundles with me. They placed them on top of my heart, where they rested for the entire angioplasty and stenting. Buffalo spirits calmly stood about the operating room and one peaceful buffalo entered my body and kept his spirit completely filling me over the two hour procedure. A child and mother buffalo stayed at my side the whole time. I was awake and alert for the duration of the procedure and was watching it on TV monitors much of the time. A few times when they were expanding the balloons, placing in the stents or expanding them the chest pains increased or my fear grew. I asked for and received assurance when I floated a bit and felt like I might be beginning to loose it. Mostly I felt comforted and assured that what needed to happen was happening. Everything went extraordinarily well.

In the bigger picture this heart attack is a gift as a major wake up call. The Creator is telling me to make some significant life style changes or accept the inevitability of an early and untimely trip to the other side.

My wife and friends have been remarkable in supporting me, and the worry and fear of my children emphasizes the degree to which I must stay here for them.

I will be slowly moving back into work and social and community commitments.

Include me, my heart and my commitment to permanently make dramatic and significant lifestyle changes in your prayers.

Miigwetch,

Michael (June 19, 2006)
You may send me notes of support to mci@irvingstudios.com

Update on my recovery from heart disease. As of January, 2007 I am walking and jogging 20 miles a week and bike riding another 50 miles a week. I do relaxation exercises, meditations and visualizations a few times a day. I am eating a Dr. Dear Ornish vegetarian type diet that has 10% fat. My cholesterol has lowered more than 70%. Both my LDL and HDL are in great ranges. I have lost 70 lbs. It will likely be several years before I sufficiently reverse the heart disease I got myself into.

Thanks again for your support.

Michael

P.S. I am pleased to report an update on my heart recovery in the summer of 2007 can be seen on an article by Canada Running Series.

April 30 to May 6, 2006

This is a week of O'Puck making molds and Dr. Irving cleaning up and refining sculptures and foundry patterns for BLP Bronze and sculpting the Plasticine stage of a sculpture for OCE (Ontario Centres of Excellence). Dr. Irving is finishing the bronze casting of the four quilt panel made of the HandPrints from the Branksome Hall six grade art class and preparing for the Exhibition Day at Branksome Hall. If O'Puck and Dr. Irving have time between all these activities they will work on more of the foundry patterns for the hands and arms of the Child Abuse Survivor Monument. Richard will be casting waxes of the quilt square for most of the week.

Saturday will be another Volunteer Sculpting Day and volunteers are welcome to come from noon to six p.m..

April 23 to 29, 2006

This was a remarkable landmark week in the foundry. By mid-week we were pouring the first bronze for one of the Monument figures.

Monday and Tuesday O'Puck and Dr. Irving continue Realigning the edges of the fiberglass patterns for the three components of one of the hands and shoulders of the figures. Tuesday morning they made foam filling cores for the sand casting process of the hand and shoulder components. On Tuesday afternoon Eric and Dr. Irving made one half of sand cast mold of the underside of one of the hand in a molding box. Finishing this had the clear feeling of an epic moment in the making of the Child Abuse Survivor Monument -- it meant that pouring bronze would be happening the next day.

On Wednesday morning Eric, as soon as an additional molding box was available Eric finished making the sand cast mold of the underside of the hand. Before lunch the sand cast molding box was opened and the fiberglass form of the hand component was removed and the mold cleaned up. The molding box was reassembled waiting for bronze to be heated to a melting point after lunch.

In the early afternoon of Wednesday April 26, 2006 the sand cast mold of a hand component was put in place near the furnace and Arnold brought the bronze up to more than two thousand degree fahrenheit and a monumental transition in building the Child Abuse Survivor Monument took place.

Activities and Events Over the Week of April 16 to April 22, 2006.

Over the week of April 16 to 22. O'Puck and Dr. Irving continued to focus on making resin forms that Eric at BLP Bronze will use for casting the hands, shoulders and head will have to start being made. Richard continued to cast wax quilt squares for the second Monument Figure. Bronze components of the Child Abuse Monument in place.

Tuesday O'Puck and Dr. Irving went to the Aboriginal Affairs Committee Meeting at Toronto City Hall to continue promoting the Wakinyan Awasis sacred site and sculpture park.

Wednesday Richard cast 6 quilt square in wax. Five were excellent casts and one had some air bubbles on the surface so it was set aside to be recast on Thursday. O'Puck and Dr. Irving did fiberglass lay ups for the underside of one of the hand and part of the top of the shoulder. Dr. Irving, Mustapha, George and Eric brainstormed the casting process for making a 36 inch bronze. With all of its curves and twists the piece is complicate to sand cast. The approach to sand casting influences the most appropriate materials for Dr. Irving to sculpt and work in.

O'Puck and Dr. Irving spent some time making a urethane molds for a foundry patterns for a bronze vase. Dr. Irving spent some time talking with Bret Davis of Age of Bronze about the patina for 15 stages of the cross and about approaching the patina on the large Child Abuse Monument. Bret is going to do a patina workshop with Bruce Armstrong, O'Puck and Dr. Irving at the PLP Bronze foundry in preparation for the patina on the Child Abuse Monument.

Thursday O'Puck poured the supporting plaster mother mold for the urethane mold we made on Wednesday. Richard Organized the group of quilt squares on the panel of the front of the second Monument figure that we are rebuilding. The quilt square were placed in groupings for their respective 11 panels. All the sculpted quilt squares on the front of the Monument have now been cast by Richard. He is working on the quilt squares for the back. Due to the vertical and horizontal curve of the Monument figures there are 16 quilt panels on the back. It ends up being 63 quilt square comprising the front of each figure and 87 quilt squares making up the quilt of the back of the figure.

The smell of the resin was bothers some people in rooms near the area the fiberglass casting patterns were being laid up in, so O'Puck spent the morning moving the fiberglass workstation and all its molds and material to a more remote and suitably ventilated area of the foundry. In the afternoon O'Puck sanded and cleaned up the surface of the three fiberglass lay ups that have been made.

Dr. Irving did designing and material plans for the upcoming Excellence sculpture. He met with Eric to go over the fiberglass and resin casting patterns. When the fiberglass patterns were pulled out of the urethane mold the fiberglass pieces each shrank and warped to different degrees. To have the least amount of working in welding the components together after casting them in bronze they needed to be sculpted to bet a more perfect alignment to the edges of the pieces. It is easier to build up a surface on the fiberglass than to shave the fiberglass down. Much of the work in realigning the edges was accomplished with auto body filler or "bondo". The body filler is an interesting sculpting material. It is made of nine hollow glass meads that are added to liquid resin until it becomes a thick paste. A catalyst is added to the past and there is a short time to use it before it begins to harden and is no longer sticky and malleable.

Friday O'Puck and Dr. Irving spent the day realigning the edges of the fiberglass patterns for the three components of one of the hands and shoulders of the figures.

Saturday was a Volunteer Sculpting Day and Nina came in and mounted her quilt square into the six panel quilt that it goes with in the second Monument figure. Saturday Dr. Irving worked on a group of designs for an Exhibition he is having in June.

Activities and Events Over the Week of April 10 to April 16, 2006.

The week of April 10 to 16 was filled with activities. The week will began with preparing Child Abuse Monument bronze casts of HandPrints for Branksome Hall and preparations for the tour. The tour took place on Tuesday and the remaining of the week was spent on a complete organization of quilt squares and Handprints for rebuilding the second Monument figure. Near the end of the week we began to make resin forms that Eric at BLP Bronze will use for casting the hands, shoulders and head will have to start being made.

On Monday Richard continued making waxes and O'Puck removed the last of the duplicate wax quilt squares from the first Monument figure that will need to be placed on the second Monument figure. Richard cast 3 plain wax quilt square panels and four wax quilt squares. Andrew printed out all the PhotoShop files of the 10 by 10 inch HandPrints that will need to be traced onto wax quilt squares for the second Monument Figure.

Eric cast bronze quilt border figures on Monday for the Branksome Hall students. Dr. Irving ground and polished the bronze quilt border figures. These bronze quilt border figure are quite nice and would be good memorabilia for selling from our web site -- we need to do a costing and figure out shipping. A large part of the Monday for Dr. Irving was devoted to sculpting and assembling a four panel wax HandPrint quilt that will be cast into bronze for mounting at Branksome Hall in their new atrium. O'Puck and Richard spent the second half of the day preparing the studio, Monument components and other art work for the Branksome Hall tour. O'Puck and Dr. Irving went over the presentation and demonstrations that we are going to give on monument making. Dr. Irving went over a last review of the tour with Eric in the foundry and the Branksome Hall teacher, Jazz Roy.

The Tuesday Branksome Hall tour to the foundry and Monument studio was amazing. Mustapha Bouabbella, Vice-President Manufacturing took the girl on a foundry tour of pattern making, moldings, casting and pouring and finishing. They viewed the sand cast process, where Eric demonstrated the first stages of four of the Branksome Hall student's wax HandPrints cast into sand molds. After this presentation the students went to different areas of the foundry to observe Arnold pour the molten bronze into the sand cast molds. Students had personal box/cartons filled with sand sculpting material to take back to school for use to sculpt a work of art.

The students had a tour of the art studio and reviewed Monument Making with Dr. Irving. They looked at monument making through the stages of public consultation, conceptualizing designs, sketching and model making, enlarging and sculpting and mold making and foundry preparation. The group reviewed the Wakinyan Awasis model for a proposed sacred site to honour the spirit of the child. Concepts of visualizing, visualizations and visioning were explored. The tour went to the warehouse room that was filled with the array of disassembled styrofoam and wax components of the first Monument figure.

In Dr. Irving's sculpting studio the students were guided through the creation of the Child Abuse Monument from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties of conceptualization and community consultation. We looked at the first 1/18 th size Plasticine, plaster and bronze models for the final figure. Discussed the sculpting of the 1/3 size figure and its functions in expanding to a full size 11 ft. Monument with 150 quilt squares. The full size head, shoulders, arms and hans were on display in the studio with accompanying rubber molds and mother molds.

Using a the small quilt borders with "Reaching Out figures Dr. Irving used visual component samples of each step to review: the sculpting and casting process from sculpting the wax figure, pouring the rubber mold, casting the foundry pattern, making the casting mold, casting and cleaning up the bronze. After this concise visual review presentation Dr. Irving gave each of the students and the adults on the tour one of the bronzes that he and Eric made the previous day.

Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday Richard kept casting wax quilt squares. To get the best cast and prevent air bubbles in the wax Richard has refined the process to cleaning the Urethane mold with sculpting tools, brushes and methyl hydrate; spraying the molds with a universal mold release and using a brush to apply a de-bubbling agent; preheating heating the rubber molds in our low heat oven to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit and applying the wax at about 185 to 190 degrees for the first coat and 170 to 180 degrees for subsequent coats. To know the thickness of the wax that is building up on the molds Richard has covered one of Dr. Irving's graphics art light boxes with a sheet of clear plastic and place the molds on the light box. Any areas of the light box that are not covered by a mold is covered with a strip of plywood to prevent the bright light from impeding a good view of the mold and wax. The result is that areas where the wax is still thin on the mold shine as a light golden brown rather than a dark brown like the built up areas. Our goal is to get a wax quilt square that is slightly over 1/4 inch thick.

Wednesday and Thursday morning O'Puck and Dr. Irving continued to catalogue and organize the quilt squares and handprints for rebuilding the second Monument figure. Part of Wednesday afternoon was spent with removing quilt squares and HandPrints from the panels of the first Monument figure. The remainder of Wednesday afternoon involved setting up a work area in one of the foundry warehouse areas to do the fiberglass work for making the foundry sand cast patterns. Three sets of tests for process approach and thickness samples of the fiberglass was done near the end of the day on Wednesday.

Late Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon were devoted to doing the fiberglass lay ups. The first lay up in the morning was not satisfactory so it was pulled and discarded and the mold was left to have the remaining resin catalyze and harden. While the resin was hardening fiberglass matt was torn into appropriate sizes and the edges were frayed in preparation for lay ups. O'Puck and Dr. Irving started the first two lay ups of fiberglass and resin in the afternoon and Dr. Irving stayed into the evening to do the third layer of lay up and trim the fiberglass before it got extremely hard. Near the end of the day Mustapha stopped by to talk about an abstract sculpture he would like sculpted next week. Dr. Irving went over the process for approaching the piece with O'Puck and set out the timeline and stages for executing the work.

Friday was a day off.

On Saturday Dr. Irving sculpted in the undercuts on two quilt squares and cleaned up the three HandPrints for panel number 10 of the 27 quilt square panel for the second Monument figure. These five wax squares were fabricated onto quilt panel number 10 and Nina was contacted about fabricating her square into this panel following Friday. This makes the first panel of the second Monument figure that is being resculpted after being damaged and lost in the foundry in the States. One down and twenty six to go.

 

Activities and Events Over the Week of April 2 to April 9, 2006.

Over the weekend, April 1 and 2nd, Jazz Roy and her dad translated four of the HandPrints made by Branksome Hall six graders into French. Dr. Irving took the four HandPrints which were 81/2 by 11 inches and traced and reworked them to fit on the 10 by 10 inch quilt squares of the Monument quilts. Richard pour waxes for these HandPrints to be transferred to and on Saturday April 9 O'Puck, Vern and Dr. Irving inscribed the Branksome Hall HandPrints onto the wax squares and carved them into the squares. What we did not finish on Saturday Dr. Irving carved in on Wednesday. While we were carving HandPrints in wax quilt squares Jesse was in the studio converting a large restaurant fridge into a thermostatically controlled warmer over for our molds and waxes.

Mike and Samir in the Service Department of BLP Bronze volunteered some time to scan, clean up and resize the HandPrints from Branksome Hall.

Monday April 3 we did some cleaning up from the previous week's mold making -- plaster of paris work makes such a mess. Tuesday and Wednesday Puck and Dr. Irving patinaed cast paper. On Thursday Cheryl took the cast paper quilt up to Casting Impressions to have framed.

Richard made wax quilt squares most of the week and on and off over the week Dr. Irving cut out duplicate squares and quilt squares that are going to be remelted and reused from the first Monument figure.

On Tuesday April 4 Dr. Irving went through all of the drawings of the two Monument figures and identified quilt squares that we already had and quilt squares that needed to be duplicated.

On Wednesday and Thursday O'Puck and Richard moved all the bronze quilts that had been damaged on the second Monument figure and arranged them with their rubber molds and with the quilt panels from the first Monument figure that new waxes are going to be worked into.

One Thursday Evan from the Sales Department of BLP Bronze set up a series of open houses and workshops for the Monument studio with the City of Toronto Heritage Days.

Thursday Jazz Roy had a phone call with further planning for the Branksome Hall field trip. Dr. Irving had a meeting with Andrew Krawczyk about the field trip as well and Andrew and Dr. Irving brainstormed some about approaches to our remaining fundraising needs.

Friday Mustapha and Dr. Irving had some discussions about the Branksome Hall field trip, Mustapha is going to give the foundry tour and Dr. Irving am going to give a sculpting studios tour. Dr. Irving spoke with Eric in the foundry about how is is going to approach the making sand cast mold boxes and bronze pouring for the field trip and Eric bronze cast a series of Monument keepsake figure for the visiting six graders. The cast actually came out quilt well and we will soon be offering them for sale through our web site.

On Friday O'Puck cut out 16 duplicate wax quilt squares from the first Monument figure.

I tried a variety of ways to do tracings of the HandPrints on the damaged second bronze figure that will need to be resculpted. Nothing worked to pick up the detail without a long and complicated process. Dr. Irving finally used O'Puck's digital camera to shoot pictures of the bronze HandPrints. Andrew in the graphics department of BLP set up an Apple computer with PhotoShop to resize and cleanup the pictures in order to use them for tracing patterns for sculpting onto quilt squares. Dr. Irving converted to colour pictures to grayscale, used brightness and contrast until the hand outlines and writing showed up best and then resized and reskewed them to become 10 by 10 inch squares. It is likely this process is going to save us nearly a week in salvaging and resculpting the damaged HandPrints form the second Monument figure.

Activities and Events Over the Week of March 27 to April 1, 2006.

On Sunday we received a $100.00 donation from Deana in Jacksboro, TX. We are grateful for this donation and it will be dedicated to staff for resculpting the second Monument figure. Thanks Deana.

Last week Puck, Richard and Dr. Irving made the final silicone rubber molds for the quilt squares for the first Monument figure. This week we are making plaster mother molds to hold the shape and form of the silicone molds that were made last week.

Tuesday Dr. Irving went to Branksome Hall to make HandPrint messages for inside the Monument with the six grade art classes of Jazz Roy. Their HandPrint messages were impressive and again the insights and energy of youth were inspiring about the compassion and motivation that people can have in desiring to make a better world. Two of the Branksome Hall HandPrint are going to be sculpted into the second Monument figure that we are working on. The whole group of Branksome Hall HandPrints will be bundled, shrink-wrapped and placed permanently inside one of the finished bronze Monument figures like other HandPrints from our Helping Hands Campaign Dr. Irving will have to get the HandPrints scanned and posted on a Branksome Hall web page on our site.

Tuesday Dr. Irving went to the Birch Ave. Monument mold storage room with Richard and organized and picked up all the the quilt square molds for rebuilding the second Monument figure. Casting Impressions called and a large cast paper quilt for fundraising activities is finished being pressed and ready for pick up. This six square quilt will need to be painted with an acrylic patina and framed for the client. The profit we make on the quilt will give us enough funds to fabricate some of the quilt squares into the second Monument figure that we are rebuilding.

Tuesday night Cheryl, Zac and Dr. Irving spent time with the HandPrints from Branksome Hall and pick out a few to go on the second Monument figure. It is so amazing to look at the HandPrints and read the depth of understanding, insight and hope of children.

First thing Wednesday morning before school Dr. Irving talked with Jazz Roy, the art teacher at Branksome Hall about the HandPrints we choose and the next steps with permission forms and editing. Dr. Irving also spoke with Andrew in the Graphics Art Department at the foundry on Wednesday morning about scanning the HandPrints from Branksome Hall. He is going to set up a scanner within the foundry computer network for us and Dr. Irving will have to track down someone to volunteer some time to do the scanning'

Wednesday morning discussed upcoming