Sarah Richards

From conception to the final bronze sculpture - The lost wax casting process

Bronze sculpture – a fiery miracle

The bronze casting process never ceases to excite me! The transformation of my wax or clay sculpture into a beautiful bronze is a fiery miracle, so in this part of my website I would like to share with you this amazing process.

I myself do not cast my sculptures but send my wax or plasticine artwork to the foundry. The process, as you will see, is complex and requires skills with many different materials. I make the originals, and then finish the work on each cast sculpture with the patination (colour, using chemicals) and polish.

In addition, I hope to bring you, the buyer/viewer, closer to an understanding of the true value of a bronze, not only because the artist’s skills required must be studied, accumulated and practised, but because of the length and complexity of the bronze casting process itself and the skills required for this.

I cast my bronzes at the Goodwin Foundry and the Sculpture Casting Services. I am fortunate to have both these foundries down the road from where I live in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, South Africa.

Contact Kim Goodwin for more information on his foundry.

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Contact Bruce Knight for more information about his foundry.

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The maquette:

A maquette is essentially a small study for a larger sculpture. When I have an opportunity to create a large sculpture I will use the creating of a maquette to learn more about my subject and the pose or structure that the final work will take.  This is then shown to the client who may have commissioned this large work so they may get a good idea of what the final work will look like. At this stage changes are easy to make as the armature (skeletal structure) from such a small sculpture (up to 40cm height) is flexible and therefore easily changed.  From this study I will 'scale-up' for the larger work, making the creation of the armature easier with something  accurate to measure from.

I usually work with a wax (microcrystalline wax, paraffin wax, dye) or plasticine (fine clay powder (ball clay), mixed into melted microcrystalline wax and some petroleum jelly), made myself. This is put onto a simple wire armature, and built up and modeled until I am happy and ready to send it to the foundry or work from when scaling up for a larger work.

I usually cast the maquette into bronze as it also make a wonderful sculpture.

Wax maquette

Bronze maquette

Bronze maquette

Life-size bronze

The armature:

The armature is the structural 'skeleton' of a sculpture. It needs to be strong enough to support the modelling materials and accurate as it is not easy to make changes to it at a later stage.

Welding isn't difficult. All that is required are a few learned skills, lots of protective wear, the right equipment (small welders are relatively inexpensive and easy to use) and patience, liberating the artist to make strong armatures of any size.

Finishing the armature:

The metal armature is covered in chicken wire. This will be the final support for the modelling materials. Tin snips, long-nosed pliers and silicon covered gloves are essential tools.

Starting the modelling:

When I work on a large scale I usually use Rhinolite (also known as cretestone) or plaster-of-Paris as an inexpensive, carvable support before I apply Plasticine. The Rhinolite material can be mixed to a thickness that can be modelled and it remains plastic for some time before it hardens. It is a dry powder which is mixed with water; it may be stained with oxides. It can be modelled and layered, eventually setting hard. Great for large sculpture work!

I cover strips of newspaper with mixed Rhinolite, and apply this to the chicken wire so that it locks onto it, forming a skin. When it is hardened I continue to work more Rhinolite onto this skin, building up layers and beginning to shape the sculpture, sometimes carving back if required.

When this form is dry I start working in the details with plasticine.

Overview of Process:

This series of images shows the making of a smaller sculpture from armature to final bronze: