Artworks Foundry, Berkeley, CA

torags

So this foundry had a "pour" for their customers last week. This foundry makes some of the most famous monumental bronze statuary in the world.



It might be of interest to some here...

Bronze statues are replicative art. They take an original piece and destroy it to make a mold.

They pour wax into the mold to make a wax figure (the wax room)



They make corrections to the wax,



then encapsulate the wax into a "refractory" plaster, dry it, heat it, turn it upside down to empty the melted wax.

The heated mold then is closer in temp the the 2,000 degree bronze that is poured into it.
The oven room cold
...


Heating up..

The bronze...

The crew dressed for action...

The 2,000 degree bronze soup being poured into the mold...


When the bronze cools, the mold is broken away and the piece looks like gold and that color will be changed later with "patina" chemicals

But it may be a piece of a larger piece that will have to be welded and "chased" (imperfections ground off)


Such is the sausage making part of bronze sculpture..

denisegoldberg

very interesting... thanks for sharing this!

--- Denise

torags

You're welcome... thanks for looking in

sarasphotos

as Denise said, thanks for sharing! I love this kind of stuff.

torags

I love it too... thanks for looking in

halcon

That's a great presentation on the lost wax casting process. Very nice. I might add that if the mold isn't heated the molten bronze won't flow into all the crevices and will kind of bead up.

torags

True

But more importantly the wax casting has to be vented properly, beads always seem to happen hence raw pieces are always chased

I didn't want to get too technical here

Have you sculpted?

Richard

Fine series, Rags. I especially like the shot of the three guys pouring the molten metal. Well done!

torags

Thanks Richard... much appreciated