A
Champion in the Making

Photo by Mike Davis
©
The Creation of the Phoenix Bronze
Part
II
Once the wax is cooled and has hardened
the plaster mother mold is unclamped and the rubber mold is opened
and in this instance the back portion of the torso is
revealed in perfectly formed wax. (plaster head in
background). In this way each plaster horse section is
translated into a wax horse section. Each wax section
requires hours of hand labor to "correct" all
blemishes and seam lines left by the molding process.
(The rubber mold is saved for future use.)
When all wax sections are
perfect, a third and final mold is made -- the
"investment". Each wax is coated layer upon
layer by what will become a concrete hard investment
material capable of withstanding great heat. A system of
"gates" or air vents and channels are
engineered into this mold so no air bubbles will destroy
the bronze casting.
The investment has hardened and is
complete, so the wax horse section inside , which took so
many hours to correct is "burned out". The wax
is destroyed by heat; and the empty mold remains. This is
the time-honored, centuries old "Lost Wax"
method of bronze casting.
Each mold is placed in a sand pit (for
heat dispersal). Liquid bronze at 2200° F and resembling liquid fire,
is poured from a furnace into a special , portable
container called the "crucible". From the
crucible the liquid bronze is carried to the sand pit and
each mold is filled. Once cooled, the solid bronze must
be freed from this final mold. To do this the investment
material must be carefully broken away. First power tools
then hand tools are used, so as not to mar the bronze
inside.
After each section of the horse, now in
bronze, is removed from the molds each piece must be
"chased" or corrected by filing and sanding the
metal into flawless condition. The separate horse
sections are then "spot welded" together.
"Arc Welding" is used over the spot welding to
completely join and bond all the horse sections and The
Phoenix rises!
The standing bronze must be again
"chased" painstakingly by hand until all evidence of weld marks is gone
and all surface blemishes are corrected. The bronze horse
weighs about 1700 pounds.
Bronze does not rust, but the elements
in mother nature form a "patina", or coating,
the color of green on the surface of the raw, yellow
bronze. An enduring man made patina can be achieved by
using an acetylene torch to etch chemicals into the
surface of the raw bronze, to create a more pleasing
color and to help protect the bronze from wear. The true and enduring patination process
must be achieved by heat and many, many hours of applying
thin layers of chemical over and over, to every square
inch of the total surface of the sculpture.
When an artist casts a bronze edition,
each casting in that edition must begin with pouring wax
into the rubber mold. The mold is always kept until it
loses its accurate shape. Each wax must then proceed
through all of the other stages previously described.
Continue to A Champion in the
Making: Part III
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