A metal check is when an artist comes into the foundry and looks over the entire sculpture very carefully. You will see as you follow this blog that the sculpture has gone through many steps in its creation. The artwork had an added distraction in that the artist had to move the artwork from one foundry to another mid-project. No one knows the sculpture like the artist. With so many hands involved in creating the art in bronze, combined with 150 hidden things in the sculpture, there is a great chance that something might be wiped out somewhere along the process.

It took a long time to approve all the metal. Deep in the Heart was very gracious with their time and expertise, especially since they had to fix mistakes made by another foundry. For example, the Mad Hatter was tipped so far over it looked like he was falling and not pouring tea. His chair was attached to him in a way that was counterproductive to the flow of the design. This was very difficult because inside all of the pieces there are structural elements and with the Hatter and his chair and him tipping, those structural elements are of utmost importance.  The foundry cut off the chair and repositioned the Hatter. Once everything was as the artist intended it you could hear others in the room in agreement that this was the way it was supposed to be. It just works and flows so much better.  Deep In the Heart went above and beyond and helped to figure out the best way to fix what could have been a very costly problem.

A new video that shows how sculptor Bridgette Mongeon made  the bronze sculpture “Move One Place On.” Also shows 3D scanning by Intertek.

On a sultry day in September Bridgette Mongeon  started 3D scanning her sculpture of Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter Tea Party titled “Move One Place On.”  As you will see by the previous press release, she and her team used several different types of equipment and scanning processes.

Intertek Surveying Services under the direction of Chad Rabitoy and a few different helpers jumped down the rabbit hole to Wonderland to help with this next curious adventure in Evelyn’s Park.

WHY 3D SCAN?
Mongeon created these scans for several reasons .

Digital Preservation—One reason is for digital preservation.  She can save the data. If anything should happen to the art, there will be data that can be used to repair the piece.  Digital preservation of cultural heritage is not new. Organizations such as Cyark have been scanning many places around the world for years.Mongeon talks about the importance of this in her book 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft: Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting, and Milling.

Online Educational Experience and Virtual Tour—These scans can also be used together to create an online educational experience for people all over the world. Mongeon is looking for volunteer coders and gamers to assist in helping her push the technology further and she is looking forward to the collaboration experience between others. When writing about this technology in her book she would often say “You don’t know what you can do, until you know what you can do.” That is why she is excited about these collaborations. “Others know best about how we can push these tools to create an incredible adventure using their skills in technology and education. I can’t wait to find these people and see the magic happen. I have no idea where they will come from, but I’m like the white queen, ‘I believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’”

The scene of “Move One Place On” lends itself to education in literature, math, technology, history, art, and engineering.  “When I look at the possibilities I see a chance to reveal some of the 150 hidden things, as well as to give virtual visitors the opportunity to learn more. For example, they might click on the Mad  Hatter’s hat and learn that hatters did go mad because of the mercury used in felting. Or if they hover over or click on the Mad Hatter’s teapot in the scene, it might reveal that Mongeon used the famous Newell teapot as an homage to the man who started 3D,” states Mongeon.

In Mongeon’s studio Alice and her friends don’t get big and small with mushrooms and elixirs, they so with digital technology.

Alice Shrinks- Little Replicas as limited editions.—
Mongeon will also take this digital data and modify it, and reduce it down for reproduction. The exact monumental scene will be shrunk like Alice in the story, and 3D printed as a small scene available to purchase as a limited edition bronze.

SCANNING THE ENTIRE SCENE
It was a scorching  Texas day when they cleaned the sculpture and started scanning at about 1:30. The sculpture is very hot in the Texas sun.  Rabitroy set up some registration balls around the scene. He used the Faro Focus

hardware / Faro Scene Software for laser scan andNCTech iSTAR 360 Camera and Kolor Panotour Pro software to scan the entire scene.Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon captured Rabitoy in his definition of  this process in this facebook video.

INDIVIDUAL PIECES WITH FINE DETAIL
They used different scanners and equipment as mentioned above. Blue Light scanning must be done in the dark. Rabitoy used the  GOM Tritop photogrammetry and ATOS / GOM Triple Scan III scanners using structured blue light scanning technology to capture the fine detail of each character.  They had to do the blue light scanning in the dark, so it was a very long night. The team started by putting registration marks that consisted of small round stickers on Alice approximately every six inches apart. Four people worked for about an hour to accomplish this task. Then the blue light scanning began. Each scan covered about a two-foot radius. There were hundreds of scans each overlapping the other. And each area had to be scanned from multiple directions to get all of the many undercuts.  Often Mongeon would stand over Rabitory’s soldier and state, “Good, it got another one of the 150 hidden objects in the scene.” Rabitory would turn the scan searching for the hidden object.

The entire scan of Alice took 9 1/2 hours.  There is still much more to scan. Tthey will come back to do the other characters until the project is complete.

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If you are interested in jumping down the rabbit hole to create these free educational resources or for more information on purchasing the collectible 150 or the small bronze Mad Hatter scene contact the artist at www.creativesculpture.com

Follow the artist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgettemongeon/

Twitter:
https://creativesculpture.com

www.alicesculpture.com

You tube https://www.youtube.com/alicesculpture

For more information on this press release contact Jessica Brown Bridgette@creativesculpture.com

For more high resolution media images visit this google doc. You are also welcome to use the images on this page with credit.

It does not have to be a large audience. Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon enjoys meeting with small groups of people.  She has met families, those interested in education, artists, gardeners and more.  This month she presented to a small group in a neighbor’s home. She spoke about the creating of the work, the educational component and all that is being done with the art and education and then it was off to the sculpture in Evelyn’s Park to take photographs.  The Sisterhood of Shalom Salaam

Contact Ms. Mongeon if you are interested in having Bridgette talk to your group.

PRESS RELEASE – Sept 1, 2018

Jumping Down a Rabbit Hole in Wonderland to Create Art,
STEAM Education, And More

Some incredible advances in art and technology combined with education will be taking place in a local park near Houston, Texas and accessed through computers and phones around the world. Evelyn’s Park in Bellaire, Texas is home for the permanent installation of a  bronze sculpture of Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter tea party title “Move One Place On.’ The monumental sculpture, weighing over 6,000 pounds is complete with 150 elements hidden in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Lewis Carroll stories. Many hearing about the further adventures with the art, technology, and education are like Alice. They listen in amazement and say, “Curiouser and Curiouser.”

Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon has used a combination of traditional sculpting mixed with digital technology in the creating of the artwork. She first sculpted the scene as a small rough clay version in her studio. It was 3D scanned using the Next Engine Digital scanner, and then the design of the artwork was revised in the computer using a digital sculpting program called Zbrush. She brought each character in the Mad Hatter scene back to life as nine-foot figures using a process called CNC milling. CNC stands for Computer Numerically Controlled Milling. Synappsys Digital Services and Across the Board Creations carved Alice, her chair, and the Cheshire cat along with the Hatter, and the March Hare using CNC Milling. To understand CNC, think of a drill bit that cuts away everything that is not Alice. These enlarged pieces are milled out of urethane foam and act as an armature on which the artist can work. She and her team then add further detail on the sculpture by hand carving the foam and adding a layer of clay, before the sculpture goes through the lost wax method of bronze casting. A local company, Carvewright, joined forces with Mongeon to CNC mill the Hatter’s chair out of wood using a home CNC machine.

The Hidden 150
The sculpture boasts 150 hidden things in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Lewis Carroll stories. Some of these things were hand sculpted while others were also created using technology. For example, Mongeon scanned a sculpture of her granddaughter as a baby using an Artec scanner and then reduced it down and 3D printed it. She then embedded it into the clay as one of the 150 hidden things, because in Lewis Carroll’s story, a baby turns into a pig. Mongeon also scanned her mother’s antique teacups. She digitally enhanced and then 3D printed the cups. She cast them into bronze where they will forever sit on the tea party table. Many of the hidden 150 were created in the computer using Zbrush and 3D Printed using 3D Systems ProJet 660 and ProJet 3510. Mongeon expresses great appreciation to Interactive Copier Unlimited in Houston, Texas for also joining the sculptor on this curious adventure and providing some of the 3D printing. Mongeon and her team are now working diligently to create collectible ornaments of the 150 that are available for sale on the alicesculpture.com website.

Deep in the Heart Art Foundry, a foundry that also embraces a combination of digital and traditional processes completed the bronze casting of Mongeon’s monumental sculpture installed the inviting table, benches and characters in Bellaire, Texas, in spring of 2018.

Mongeon is adept at mixing traditional art processes with digital technology, and she has written a book on how she and other artists around the world do so. Her book

“3D technology in Fine Art and Craft Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting, and Milling” is used by vendors to help their clients understand their processes and possibilities, by academia to teach, in maker spaces, and is also in the fine art libraries of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Albright Knox art gallery in Buffalo. Mongeon appreciates that her work is more than just a beautiful sculpture to look at; it is interactive and has a strong educational component, not only in literature but also in STEAM Science, Technology Engineering, Art, and Math. She speaks on this regularly and searches for others to help her create a repository of curriculum around Alice in Wonderland and STEAM that she will offer on Alicesculpture.com website.

She is also writing a new book tentatively titled, “A Curious Adventure: The Sculpting of a Bronze Wonderland Using Fine Art and Digital Technology.” It is similar to her last book but documents the making of “Move One Place On.”

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES.
Though the monumental bronze is complete, the artist’s work is not. There is one final chapter and challenge for her new book. It is the 3D scanning of the monumental sculpture and the incredible things they have planned for those scans. You could say that in Bridgette’s Studio things get big and small not with mushrooms and elixirs but with digital technology. Alice and her friends are once again changing size.

Intertek Surveying Services under the direction of Chad Rabitoy is jumping down the rabbit hole to Wonderland to help with this next curious adventure. Rabitoy and Mongeon will be working together to scan the entire monumental sculpture in Evelyn’s Park.They will do so in two ways. Rabitoy will use GOM Tritop photogrammetry and ATOS / GOM Triple Scan III scanners using structured blue light scanning technology to capture the fine detail of each character. Mongeon will take this digital data and modify it for reproduction. The exact monumental scene will be reduced down and 3D printed as a small scene available to purchase as a limited edition bronze. Mongeon and Rabitoy may also use this data in conjunction with the second set of 3D scans.

For the second set of 3D scans Rabitoy will also be using Faro Focus hardware / Faro Scene Software for laser scanand NCTech iSTAR 360 Camera and Kolor Panotour Pro software to scan the entire scene. Mongeon hopes to use this data at a later date with the help of other volunteers to create both a virtual reality of the whole scene and an educational learning experience for adults and children. She is actively looking for volunteer coders and gamers to help with this undertaking. “What I hope will happen is that we can use the virtual reality combined with the detail scans for two purposes. First, people can visit the sculpture anywhere in the world through the Internet. Though everyone says, you have to see it in person, and sit at the table to get the full feel of the art.” She hopes to make the entire scene into an educational tool. Because of the subject of the art and how Mongeon created it, it is an excellent resource for the study of history, literature, digital technology, engineering even math. For example, she can reveal some of the 150 hidden things or some of the educational elements. Imagine in the virtual reality you click on the Mad Hatter’s teapot or read the engraving on the bottom that says “Utah 1975” and that will take you to the history of the Newell teapot. The Newell or Utah teapot is the first computer graphics created. The teapot used by professor Newell in the University of Utah even resides in the computer history museum. Mongeon, like many others before her, has hidden the Newell teapot in her art as homage to the man who started it all. Or, you click on the Hatter’s hat and learn that many hatters did go mad caused by poisoning from the mercury they used to make their hats.

“It is a joy to find others who are excited about the work and the possibilities and who want to jump down the rabbit hole with me. But be warned, ” States Mongeon. “We are all a little mad here. I relish the assistance and knowledge of others who see this magical journey and all that it holds. I have often said, you don’t know what you can do until you know what you can do, bringing on board volunteers in 3D, coding, and gaming will be quite an adventure. I have no idea where they will come from, but I’m like the white queen, ‘I believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’”

If you are interested in jumping down the rabbit hole to create these free educational resources or for more information on purchasing the collectible 150 or the small bronze Mad Hatter scene contact the artist at www.creativesculpture.com

Follow the artist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgettemongeon/

Twitter:
https://creativesculpture.com

www.alicesculpture.com

You tube https://www.youtube.com/alicesculpture

For more information on this press release contact Jessica Brown Bridgette@creativesculpture.com

For more high resolution media images visit this google doc. You are also welcome to use the images on this page with credit.

These last few weeks sculptor Bridgette Mongeon has been busy spreading the word about the Alice sculpture and STEAM education. (STEAM education is an interdisciplinary approach using Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. )Houston Independent School District had in-service for HISD art teachers. One week it was at the Asian Societythe following week it was at the MFA.Though her schedule was hectic and the

HISD art coordinator said she should pick one, she volunteered for both weeks.  “Any time I can get teachers excited about STEAM education, and I can squeeze it into my schedule I’ll do it.” States Mongeon.

Of course a Bridgette was delighted to sign her book “3D Technology In Fine Art and Craft:Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting, and Milling.”