Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bronze Casting Workshop

At the beginning of the month I participated in a 3 day bronze casting workshop at Historical Arts & Casting. I created a swirly, stylized acanthus leaf. It was neat to see the process from beginning to end. My results are below, as well as a list of the steps we took, in very simplified, not-so-scientific terms...

1. Create the decoration using oil based clay.
2. Pour a substance over the clay which hardens into a plastic-y material, producing a mold of the decoration. Peel the clay out of the mold.
3. Wax the mold and pour more of the plastic-y substance into the mold, creating a positive form of the decoration, matching the original clay form.
4. Impress the plastic decoration into sand, which includes a hardening agent, then remove the decoration and pour bronze into the sand mold.
5. When it cools, remove the bronze from the sand, cut off the excess bronze, and file the edges.
6. Dip the bronze decoration into a patina to achieve the desired look
7. Voila! Pretty bronze decoration.

my finished bronze decoration

my bronze piece before the patina

This shows each step of the process from clay to bronze

the sand molds ready for bronze


pouring the bronze


the bronze before cutting and filing


We also visited the studio of Ed Fraughton, a very talented sculptor. I was impressed and inspired listening to his process and seeing his amazing work!


sculpted by Ed Fraughton
Ed Fraughton discussing his work
 
sculpted by Ed Fraughton