what it takes to create a bronze

It takes some engineering to lay out the feeds letting in the molten bronze once the wax evacuated the investment. As well it takes some mapping for the venting in the same piece to allow for all the gases and wax to exit the same investment, round branches are vents where as the square ones chanel in the molten bronze at maximum volume so not to cool too fast.

This seems to be the most I have worked on in a good while, it is a larger piece measuring twenty inches by eleven. An abstraction of the female figure conceived at one of our dental society seminars, a thought came to me and posesed me ever since. At christmas I started making a full size clay mock up and by early feruary I made a mold impression of this form to allow me to duplicate it in wax. The wax outcome lacked the enthusiasm and exactness I was sure I had in the clay form; so I began to correct the wax shape. Three months later I was ready to make another mold proofed from the modified wax.

In order to cast a piece this size I had to section the figure in two segments, here you can see the two halves gated with the bright red wax branches. After the two parts are cast in bronze, it will take a good long effort to cut away all of those branches as they will be bronze then, and allign the top and bottom for welding .

I just wanted to let the viewer know what goes into making a bronze sculpture, truly it is better suited for craftsmen that work in foundaries . However, equally it takes left brain thought processes executing them is gut wrenching for someone that only want his exquisite curvacious figure deep in this mess to emerge intact.

please visit other month entries as each one has a story of its own

keep me in your prayers for this one to work out in a week

thank you

fawaz