I worked with Geoff Collier, of Collier Webb Foundry, employing a process that has many similarities to how bronze sculpture has been made for centuries. This is more or less how they are made:

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1. My clay sculpture has a silicone (a type of rubber) mold built up around it in layers, the silicone is cut to form a block, about half the size of a traditional brick. Very small tunnels are created during this process and lead from my sculpture to the outside of the silicone mold.

2. When the silicone is dry, it is cut open and the clay sculpture is taken out, breaking and crumbling in the process. The silicone is carefully put back together, sealed, and liquid wax is pumped back through the tiny tunnels through the silicone, creating a wax sculpture identical to my original clay sculpture.

3. When the wax is dry, the silicone is taken apart again, the previous cuts are used again to pry out the wax sculpture.

4. This new wax sculpture is then immersed into a small tin bucket of liquid plaster that then proceeds to dry, encasing the wax sculpture, channels of wax are created running from the wax sculpture itself to the outside of the plaster. The tin bucket has holes all around the sides that will be used to shoot molten bronze straight through the wax channels, into the centre of the bucket where the wax sculpture is sitting surrounded by the plaster.

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Of course the molten bronze is so hot it melts the wax and fills all the cavities where once stood the miniature wax sculpture, the plaster remains intact. When the bronze has cooled down, the plaster can be taken out of the tin bucket and broken, revealing the bronze sculpture inside.  

ADULT CONTENT

 
The miniatures depict rather rude and saucy scenes of an adult nature, which may not be to everyone's taste.