Ancient artform benefits from scientific research

Art can be hard work,
and in Jillian
Tebbitt's case that
means shovelling and
pounding moist sand
three days a week for
three months in the
basement of the A
building. Tebbitt is
working on a research
project funded by the
Explorations Program
of the Canada Council
into the chemical
colouring (patina) of
bronze.

Bronze is an allow of
copper and tin (and
sometimes small
amounts of other
substances), and two
qualities have made
it extremely useful—
it is easier to cast
than copper and
harder than iron. For
thousands of years it
has been used for
weapons, coins and
objects of art, which
is where the Canada
Council comes in.

When itis first cast,
bronze is golden
brown, but exposure
to air and weathering
over a periodof years
changes the surface
colour to reddish
brown, dark brown,
black or even green,
depending on environmental conditions.
Since this patina is highly prized and
artists are not eager to wait for decades
for their work to acquire its finishing
touches, various chemical treatments have
been developed which produce awide variety
of bronze patinas.

Jillian Tebbitt's project is to investigate
scientific developments in industry which
can be used by artists. With the advice of
the Metallurgical Engineering Department
at UBC she has been sand casting 200

Pro rs Py ee

bronze test samples using foundry
facilities provided by Capilano. (That is
where the sand pounding comes in.), Next,
when all the samples are finished, a
selection of them will be placed in parts
of downtown to find out what a year of
Vancouver weather and a dose of urban
pollution will do to them.

Tebbitt started on this project in January
and will finish in August. A sculptor and
painter, she has worked and gained art

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