A fifteen year old
Roadside scrap, remelted
An aspiring engineer who decided the aluminium at the side of the road was raw material, not rubbish.
He can give you the melting point of almost anything you hand him, which is what happens when a fifteen year old starts collecting scrap off the roadside and melting it down himself. The first pours came out rough, porous and misshapen. He kept adjusting, mould after mould, until he could cast the shape of a hand in aluminium. He wants to be an engineer, and he is already doing the part of engineering most people skip: failing at a physical thing repeatedly until the material does what you intended.
Molten metal poured from the crucible into a carved mould.
The bench before a session: scrap sheet, moulds, crucible and tongs.
The early attempts. Three rough castings and a cast nail.
The finished cast hand, made entirely from reclaimed scrap.