[PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting

[Alan]

Thanks Phil, 
will have a look for the book, it sounds my type of read.
Was in Cherbourg, Normandy a couple of weeks back. Saw the submarine museum,
but didn't get to the Normandy landing site.
Alan

Sent from my iPad

On 5/10/2013, at 3:59 PM, "Phil Nuytten" <phil at philnuytten.com> wrote:

> Can't say enough good stuff about Bruce Beasley - he really is is an amazing friend. His former company, Polymer Engineering, made the acrylic hemis for our 'Deep Rover' about 30 years ago. Bruce and I discovered quite accidentally that we both had a passion for northwest coast  first nations art and knew many native artists who were our mutual friends. Bruce is an artist who got into acrylics because of his art. I got into the underwater biz for a similar reason - I apprenticed with a master totem carver during the summers in the 50's and that led to diving . . .a long story. You can find it in my book "The Totem Carvers" - now out of print but usually available -used-, from Amazon - stupid prices sometimes, though!
> BTW, our crew just got back from Normandy - filming the sunken 'D' -day troop carriers and tanks off SWORD, JUNEAU, and OMAHA beaches for a one hour special due  to air next year for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Even took a 92 year old survivor down in 'Aquarius' to see his troop transporter, we used AQ and DeepWorker.  AQ is off filming deep glass-sponge reefs next week, for a conservation group called C-Paws - google the name and you'll get the skinny.
> Phil
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Alan
> Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2013 12:56 PM
> To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion
> Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting
> 
> Hi Jon & Hank,
> Firstly Hank, no I didn't come across any Biber class submarines.
>  Regarding Bruce; After his success with acrylic he started an acrylic business, however his partner got out of it & set up his own company. He was a bit hard done by. At some point he
> chose to pursue art rather than a business career. He is a good friend of Phil Nuytten. They both
> have a strong interest in Native American art.
> If we had a conference on the West coast you might be able to talk him in to speaking.
> It certainly is an interesting story.
> Alan
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On 12/10/2013, at 2:59 AM, Jon Wallace <jon.wallace at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> Nice job Alan.  I always wondered where he was, he seemed to disappear after his work with Stachiw ended.  We should see if he's interested in being a guest speaker for a future conference.
>> 
>> --------------------------------------------
>> On Sat, 10/12/13, Alan <alanlindsayjames at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting
>> To: "Personal Submersibles General Discussion" <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
>> Date: Saturday, October 12, 2013, 1:26 AM
>> 
>> While in San Francisco I looked up
>> Bruce Beasley's contact details.
>> He is one of Americas pre- eminent sculptures & a
>> pioneer in casting thick sectioned acrylic.
>> I thought I was heading to his gallery but it ended up being
>> his home & studio.
>> For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Bruce was
>> attracted to acrylic as a sculpting
>> medium but no one had cast it more than two inches thick. He
>> managed to cast a 4" thick
>> model of a proposed 13ft x 4ft art work that he submitted
>> for a competition for a State of California public
>> sculpture. The judges awarded him the prize & finance to
>> built it. Unbeknown
>> to them the technology to make it didn't exist.
>> Du Pont the acrylic manufacturer told Bruce they couldn't
>> offer him technical assistance as he had already exceeded
>> what their chemists could achieve, but would supply him the
>> raw product free.
>> He observed the formation of bubbles in the polymerising
>> acrylic through windows in an autoclave & discovered how
>> to eliminate them & the cracking, that were the Achilles
>> heel of the process. 2 castings later he created The 13ft x
>> 4ft casting. He said if he hadn't have made it he could have
>> been sued.
>> It was at that point that Jerry Stachiw from the U.S. navy
>> approached him to make thick acrylic spheres for deep diving
>> submersibles. There were several failures before success
>> & the price tag on these failures was the equivalent of
>> a new VW.
>>   Anyway he ushered me in to his living room
>> & chatted away. I have a background in art
>> so we related well, & he ended up giving me a book which
>> was a retrospective of his sculpture,
>> including the story of his acrylic sculpture. I think he was
>> quite impressed that someone from N.Z.
>> knew his story & had tracked him down.
>> He still has the secrets to manufacturing large castings if
>> anyone wants to purchase the technology.
>> So again I've been totally spoilt.
>> Alan
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
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