The Sculpture Comes to Life

Washoe in Clay

Georgia's talents shine!

"Georgia has made great progress and is excited about the piece. These photos are taken from the viewpoint you suggested - a 4'7" person about five feet away. The eyes actually work well in a much greater range of height and distance.

It is often difficult for the inexperienced to imagine the translation into bronze. What I can say is that what may appear a little rough and ragged in the clay creates interesting and beautiful textures and highlights in the bronze. Also, remember that Georgia's style is fairly loose - it is the interpretational part of what gives her representational work the feel of the artist's hand - which helps impart personality and life to the bronze." — Randy

	Donna Nylander, Ann Denman, Barbara Bicchieri, and Georgia Gerber.

The Process

Step 1: Georgia first creates the sculpture in water-based clay. In our case, she sculpted directly onto the artifical rock that serves as the base of the sculpture. The rock was fabricated by Turnstone Construction (Seattle, WA), and donated to our project.	Step 2: The finished sculpture is covered in shellac and sectioned into castable-sized pieces with thin metal shims.
Step 3: An "investment" made of sand, plaster, and vermiculite is applied to each section to a thickness of about 5 inches.	Step 4: Once set, each section is removed and the clay is removed. There is now a negative imprint of each section of the sculpture captured in plaster.
Step 5: A ¼" thickness of wax is pressed against the negative imprint.	Step 6: A "plumbing" network of wax (sprues and gates) is connected to the wax.
Step 7: The entire section piece, with the pressed wax and sprue system attached, is encased in a larger cylinder of investment material - with part of the plumbing system protruding out of the top.	Step 8: The cylinder is placed upside down in a large kiln and heated with propane to 1,000°F for about 48 hours, which evacuates the wax (hence, the "lost wax" method). This leaves a void inside the cylinder wherever there was wax. The negative plaster imprint imbedded inside the cylinder now has a ¼" void adjacent to its surface, connected to the voids left by the melted plumbing network. Since this network originally protruded out the top of the cylinder there is now a hole that provides access to all the voided spaces inside the cylinder.
Step 9: The cylinders are placed right side up in a pit and surrounded by sand to re-enforce the mold. Bronze ingots are melted in a furnace to about 2,000°F and poured into the hole in the top of the cylinder. The molten metal flows through the plumbing system and fills the ¼" space against the negative plaster imprint, taking on the positive form. As it cools, the metal maintains this positive form, and so replicates that section of the original sculpture.	Step 10: After cooling, the cylinders are broken open and the raw castings cleaned. The plumbing system - now also replicated in bronze - is cut off to be recycled in the next melt.
	STILL TO COME
Step 11: The raw castings are cleaned. You can see the face of the sculpture emerging through the spray as water blasts the residual investment material off the rough bronze casting.	Step 12: The individual cast sections are welded together, like pieces of a puzzle, to form the bronze replica of the original clay. Step 13: All welding lines and other flaws are tooled by skilled artisans to make a seamless bronze sculpture. Step 14: Patina chemicals are applied - usually to a heated bronze - to get the coloration desired. And, finally, a number of coats of wax are applied to seal and protect the finish.