About Us

Of course it always starts with an idea.  Now you must get it out of your head, through your hands working the clay into the finished concept.  Often the process starts with an armature (a fancy word for a skeleton or base).  This may be pipe and wire or in large pieces, I use foam because it is light and rigid.

Either way, the creative process of moving the clay and seeing your idea materialize is magical!  Now the hard work begins and it takes a team of really talented people to bring it to life - my foundry is awesome btw!

Once the clay maquette is complete, off to the foundry we go.  The clay will be covered in a silicone rubber material which captures all of the fine detail.  It is flexible and durable so it will then be encapsulated in a rigid shell - think plaster or fiberglass.  When this is done, we discard the original clay from inside the mold.  That’s right…I work on it for months and then basically throw it away!

The master mold is now used every time I want to produce a new edition of the work.  Hot wax is poured into the mold creating a positive of the sculpture that looks identical to the original clay maquette but, the wax is hollow (think chocolate Easter bunny here).

So now we have a wax sculpture.  We take that and dip it into a ceramic slurry and cover it with silica sand.  It now looks like an ice cream cone that you dropped on the beach.  Covered in sand, inside and out!  This process happens several times, building a shell around the wax sculpture.  Next the piece is placed into a kiln and fired.  The wax melts out of the shell and we now have the investment mold.

The investment mold is now ready.  Ready for what?  Ready for the liquid bronze to be poured in to the cavity where the wax once was.  As the bronze cools and hardens, the shell or mold will shatter and fall in pieces to the ground leaving the bronze sculpture in its place.  This will be sand blasted and cleaned up, freeing the raw metal and preparing for the final steps.  We are getting close!

Depending on the size and complexity of the original piece, it is very likely that the sculpture has been cast in several pieces.  Now the pieces must be welded (braised) together and the sea s will be chased (ground down and cleaned up) so that you would never know it was once in many pieces.  This is a process for the experts…not me!

We are almost done!  The final step in the process is to “paint” the piece.   Ok actually there is no paint at all.  The metal will be heated up with a torch and different chemicals will be sprayed, brushed or spattered on the hot bronze.  The heat and the chemicals react with the bronze creating a variety of different colors and patterns.  While still warm from the patina process, a layer of wax is melted into the piece creating a final seal.  No two pieces are exactly alike.