Robert K. Abbett

"Dare", 6.5" high, cast at Arizona Bronze Foundry, in Tempe, Arizona.

This Business of Bronze

Based on a "From Behind the Easel" column in Wildlife Art Magazine

Somewhere between art school and the present, I got the bright idea to try a bronze - sensing sporting dogs had been less favored to horses and cowboys at the time, and I set out to do a black Lab crossing the shallows. The result was Gray Water Bronze, perhaps more a milestone in my education than in the annals of sculpture. The piece was cast in an edition of twenty which eventually were sold.

4" wide, "Gray Water Bronze, cast at Renaissance Foundry in Connecticut"

More important was my getting acquainted with the several complicated steps which led from initial sketches to the finished product via the lost was process, chasing and patina application, etc. In reviewing the sequence you’ll see additional photos of another piece, Dare, Gordon Setter Head, a casting of which is on display at the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in St. Louis.

As drawing is an important step in the creation of a painting, it is no less vital in sculpture, probably even more so as we go into three dimensions. With Dare, one challenge was vignetting the dog’s neck, arbitrarily removing much of the neck’s mass to concentrate attention on the head and ears, and ending up at the collar and buckle which would later become our link to the wooden base

Dare Head, original wax model

I did many rough pencil sketches before moving on to a small scale plasticine model (the old grade school oily clay stuff). A full sized drawing was then made to help me size up the armature, the armature being the wire structure used to support the final wax sculpture (maquette) and help prevent its damage during work or transit. Constructing the armature in correct size and proportion was the first real difficult step I ran into; this ‘skeleton’ would necessarily be totally encased and I later learned, even among experienced sculptors, it is common practice to occasionally clip some emerging wires or push a leg or an arm bone back in as the maquette takes shape.

Most sculptures I know use wax for their work, it is easily shaped, retains very small marks and details and remains pliable. This original model must contain almost every shape and texture just as we wish to see in the final bronze - though things may be welded on or ground off later - the more that is included at this stage, the easier the final steps will be. The casting process is not going to add any magical touches to ones work; the action, the anatomy and the surface must all be just the way you want them.

Foundry technician grinding (chasing) off imperfections

The metal tools used to shape and finish the wax can be heated on an alcohol burner for better manipulation of the wax, and a 100-watt work light will also keep the work warm enough to be pliable. Big hunks of wax can also be softened in a pan of water on a hot plate, and dipping the fingers in a bit of olive oil periodically relieves the stickiness of the medium. (Extra virgin oil is not necessary - this is not the cooking channel).

At long last, it is time for the trip to the foundry. After many tussles and struggles and solving of the usual artistic problems; as I’ve frequently said, leaving my work with a stranger was a bit like dropping off one’s favorite child with the village idiot, this comparison being 100% emotional. Of course Ron Cavalier in Connecticut and Mark Ambrosini in Arizona were more than professional in their help and expertise.

The lost wax process is almost as old as art - there are examples of very high quality which date back to early Chinese dynasties. To easily understand this, think of forming a lump of wax into a small simple shape, let’s say of an acorn, and then coating this with clay. When the clay dries it is a nearly perfect negative mold still surrounding the model acorn. When the clay is baked, it hardens, but the wax melts, and escapes through an exit hole. As molten bronze is poured into the hole, it assumes the shape of the mold, and when cooled, the clay is chipped away and we are left with a bronze acorn.

Bronze casting joined with oak base

Since we now have modern materials to make more elastic molds, our original wax maquette can be reproduced in multiples of wax models, each of which is then invested - coated with a liquid clay ceramic material. And each of these investures is then baked and poured the same as the acorn, and thus an edition of several castings now exists; again the ceramic mold material being removed.

I must interject here, that the foundry took over with everything after I delivered the maquette; making the mold, hand working the multiple waxes, the investing, pouring the multiple castings, again doing the handwork on each bronze and creating the patinas.
Various artists may do more or less themselves, but as a novice, I thought it best to have professional work at this point.

For instance, the next step deals with any surface imperfections like mold seams, "gates" or flaws which can be "chased", ground off by a foundry worker. The piece then goes to a patina specialist, who, with a heat torch and some chemical compounds, usually of iron and copper, can make our sculpture look like it’s been on a pedestal in the park for twenty years, give or take the pigeons. Variations and combinations of brown, greens, blues and grays are possible and all look much better than the rather sickly, lavender colored look of the piece as it emerged from the ceramics. Finally, with steel wool, a good paste wax and a little selective polishing the finish is achieved.

The final and seemingly most difficult step in my experience was finding a simple rectangular piece of oak for the sculpture’s base. Many bases are shaped to follow that of the casting, many even use pieces of marble, but I finally found a wood shop where hard wood could be sawed simply into a block, sanded and finished.

My old trail-riding pal, sculptor Truman Bollinger, once reminded me, there are too many variations of the lost wax process and modern techniques too numerous to detail in less than a book. But if you have access to a modern art foundry anywhere, and can arrange a tour, it can be entertaining and time well spent. I always marvel at how they finally assemble the many body parts which were always lying around helter skelter in any foundry I’ve ever seen. And there is something almost spooky about doing bronzes - knowing that with a little care, these pieces will outlast all of us, and hopefully will be around and enjoyed for a long time after that.

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