latest bronze

[kt4ever]

I finally finished my latest bronze sculpture. A piece for the library "So Many Books So Little Time". A sculpture of a little girl reading a book to her teddy bear as her dog leans in to listen too. It is a gift in memory of my daughter Katie who was killed in a car accident 9 years ago this Thursday. She was 19. She was an avid reader. I used her teddy bear and her beloved dog Cinderella as models. I did the sculpture in plastilina, made the silicone rubber molds myself. Cast the waxes, did the ceramic shells, cast the bronze, removed gates and welded the pieces together. Chased and applied patina. Has a little help with the welding.

[raspero]

You certainly captured and communicated a mother's love for her daughter in this piece. It speaks quite eloquently.

Richard

[mantrid]

Its a beautiful piece, congratulations, I know how much time and skill goes into producing a bronze from start to finish especially when you are doing each stage yourself. It looks complicated to make a mould of, how many pieces did you need to break it down into?

Personnally if I was going for vivid multi colours I would have just cold painted it. Its difficult to acheive with hot applied patinas. Out of interest how did you create the brown of the skin and white of the shirt? Have you sealed it with anything yet?

[fritchie]

Congratulations on a beautiful, personally meaningful piece. I'm also curious about the number of pieces in the casting and the choice of patina colors.

Bronze of course typically is some shade of coppery brown, but to my eye the much lighter clothing draws unusual attention to the child's skin coloring. In fact it even makes me ask questions about her hair color. I apologize for raising technical questions in this very personal matter, but I expect library visitors will have similar ones.

[kt4ever]

The dog and the bear were cast in one piece each. The bear is solid and the dog is hollow. The child was cast in5 pieces. The torso is hollow as is the head. Each arm and leg was cast separately . The green shirt is obviously a strong cupric hot patina. The child is ferric nitrate . The blue shorts are bismuth, titanium and pure blue pigment. The hair is a very weak wash of liver and ferric nitrate. The dog was a coat of cupric, then washed with water mixed with titanium. Then a coat of ferric making the dog an ochre color. I sealed it with several light coats of lacquer.