Reflections in Bronze

Finished bronze Native American at the foundry.

Last week I was lucky enough to tour the Eagle Bronze foundry in Lander, WY. "Eagle Bronze, Inc. has been a worldwide leader in the creation and manufacturing of high quality bronze sculptures and stainless steel fine art sculptures since 1985. We specialize in custom bronze sculpture, outdoor bronze sculpture for your garden or front of your facility, sculpture restoration, repair, casting etc".(from the website)

We got to see all aspects of what it takes to cast a bronze, from taking the maquette, turning it into a plaster mould with an inner silicone or latex liner that captures all the detail, pouring in liquid wax, removing the solidified hollow wax model, removing any mould marks and seams on the wax. Even fingerprints will be duplicated in bronze if they are there.

Then a ceramic shell is built up around the wax model, it is placed in a kiln and the wax is melted out. The ceramic shell is placed on a bed of sand and filled with liquid metal, in this case, bronze. Once the shells are cooled, the ceramic shell is broken away and the bronze sculpture is revealed. Then it is just a matter of chasing the seam lines and polishing. Eagle Bronze can also cast in stainless steel. Casting a big project can take a year or more.

Some of the sculptures are so big, they have to be assembled, cleaned up and coated with a patina, then cut apart in order to ship, to be reassembled where it is going to be placed. They also make bronzes down to the small tabletop size. Artists come from all over the world to supervise the process of casting their artwork, including Arturo Di Modica, who did the famous Wall Street Bull. Eagle Bronze also did the cattle drive sculpture in Pioneer Plaza in Dallas, TX, that consists of 49 bronze cattle and three bronze trail riders. 65 bronze cattle are planned.

Rather large horse. (Photo snitched from Eagle Bronze website)

Another huge horse being assembled and polished.

Horse parts waiting to be assembled. That leg part is about 6 feet long.

Stainless steel shark being polished to a mirror finish.

Lion broken out of his mould and being finished.

Large sculpture of a bear chastising a little Native American boy. What you can't see is the little arrow sticking out of the bear's backside. Love the expression on the bear's face.