Man of the Future: Step 1
Hello and thank you for joining me here for this Artist’s Studio. I will be walking you through the process of creating a lifesize bronze sculpture, from conception to finished bronze. The piece is called “Man of the Future”, depicting a boy looking up in thought from reading a book.
The creation of a clay image is the first step of a lengthy process that has only just begun when that clay sculpture is finished. Bronze is cast using the “cire purdue” or “lost wax” casting method, which involves making wax copies of the image which are then used to make secondary molds in which to cast the molten bronze. Yes it sounds confusing, but hopefully I can illuminate the casting process and help impart an enhanced appreciation of the work that goes into each bronze sculpture, both by the artist and the foundry that brings you the finished product of the artist’s vision.
I will be taking you through the sculpting of the two clay images (small and large), then the foundry processes of mold making, wax casting, ceramic shell molds, bronze pour, assembly, “chasing”, and patina of a lifesize bronze.
The first stage is the “maquette”, or scaled down version, which for this piece is 1/3 of lifesize.These can be just a rough thumbnail sketch used just to create a composition and then discarded, or as in this case, finished and cast as it’s own limited edition. The clay maquette was started with a modelling session at the foundry that will cast the bronzes of this sculpture. The 10 year old son of one of the employees modelled for the piece, and the clay maquette was pretty much fleshed out how I wanted it in one session, thanks to a good model and some luck. Measurements and photos were also taken of the model for reference. You will probably notice that I didn’t start the face at the same time as the rest of the piece- this wasn’t because the model was funny looking, I just usually prefer to do faces mostly from scratch, giving a look that is hopefully identifiable as my work.
