How a Bronze Sculpture is Created

Author: Jennifer Thompson Gunn; Published: May 2, 2010; Category: Bronze Sculpture; Tags: Bronze Sculpture; No Comments

After the Night sculpture»

I work with water-based clay. Many artists, particularly for larger pieces, use an oil-based clay.

Once I am done with the sculpture, I give it to my moldmaker, Fran Nicholson. Fran is a very talented sculptor herself and has created the molds for many well-known artists including Glenna Goodacre.

Fran carefully creates the mold based on her years of experience as a moldmaker and as someone who has worked in a foundry. She knows how to make certain that the finished bronze comes out well.

After the mold is created, Fran creates the waxes and “dresses them,” cleaning up any seams from two-piece molds, etc. Then, she returns them to me. I perform the final quality control on each wax before it goes to the bronze-casting foundry.

Madd Castings of Colorado is currently casting my sculptures. They will make a series of sprues (plumbing attached to the wax sculpture) to ensure a good pour. Then, they create a a shell using several coats of a silica-based compound.

Once the shell is hardened and ready; then, they pour the hot bronze, usually at least 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, into an opening in the shell.

Once the bronze has cooled, the bronze is “hatched” by breaking open the shell: The new bronze sculpture is born! It is an exciting process.

The bronze is then delivered to me. My job is to make certain that the bronze is finalized  according to my vision. That means having it chased (grinding, sanding and buffing the metal) to clean up any blemishes that might have been introduced in the casting process and then deciding on the patina and having it finished in the chosen patina.

Once again, I have the help of a talented sculptor, Deb Martin, as my patineur. Some patinas are complicated. For these pieces, I am choosing a rather simple patina.

Bronze is a time-consuming and somewhat costly process… but the end product makes it worth all the effort.