Bronze Casting

Okay, I have no idea where to start on this blog post. There is so much I want to say and so much STUFF rolling around in my head! And there's no time to figure it out, as we leave town again tomorrow for Charlotte. Hubby has a triathlon there that he is doing with his good friend, and it will be a nice weekend indeed. But on the bronze side of things, I am so glad I did it. I was really nervous - about so many things! The cost, the potential for mistakes, and all the "what-ifs" too. I was even nervous about the guys at the foundry - what if they think I'm a "screw-ball artist type" who does crappy work?? All these nervous feelings just washed away once we got the ball rolling. I took the sculpture to the foundry in Florida back in June, before we left for San Francisco, so that they could cast it while I was gone. When I got home, a phone call to the foundry scheduled our date for the patina. Once at the foundry, all of the guys were just awesome. Big, burly, strong men who were not gruff or mean at all. They liked art, had a good eye for the work, and cared about doing a good job. They had no issues working with a small-ish female (I'm 5'1"), and made sure to help with anything I needed. I loved how the piece turned out and now I'm stoked to get back in the studio (it will have to be next week) and get to work on some new pieces.

Here is a picture of the sculpture before any patina goes on. It's just bare metal here. You can see that it looks kind of gold before the patina goes on. (All pictures were made with the iPhone, so forgive me if they aren't the best images...)

In this next photo, you can see the side of her wing, and most of the patina is already on this part of the sculpture.. And that's me and the patina guy, Paul, you can see in the reflection..

Next is a close up of her head, prior to the coat of wax.

And her backside..

This last picture shows the base block with the patina on it, again, before the final coat of wax. Really not a good photo, but at least you can get an idea of the color of the patina. It has a nice weathered-look to it, and if you know me, you know it's hard for me to do anything in one solid color... It's difficult to see some of the detail of the block in this shot though, with the less-than-ideal lighting...

And then, last but not least, she's getting her final buffing in this shot, before she is wrapped up and hauled home!

So that's it for now. Next thing to do is get hubby to take some quality shots of her with a nice backdrop and good lighting. I will use the nicer photos on my website and who knows - maybe on some new postcards too!

I want to thank all of you for ALL the support, and all the encouragement you gave me during this time! The emails I have received, and the little comments on Facebook/Twitter have all helped to give me courage to forge ahead in this expensive experiment! And I am so thankful to each and everyone of you, because the experiment was a success (Well, I think so, anyway...) and I probably wouldn't have done it without all of you!! *insert hugs for everyone here* Now I am looking forward to moving ahead in this part of my art journey! But to all of you clayheads, don't worry, I'm still working in good ol' clay too! I have an exhibition coming up in January for clay sculpture, so I'll be working on that too, over the next few months.

Have a great weekend!

XOXO, Kelly