with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge!
 

As I said last week, work continues apace in the studios and there’s masses of it!

Here is one of the originals from the Gibran Sculpture Series – The Prophet called ‘Speak to us of Crime and Punishment‘.  It’s a small bronze maquette, resting on a work stand.  Next to it, there is a pantograph, which is set up to be a mechanical magnifier.  The enlarger uses the pantograph to faithfully reproduce the sculpture, in an enlarged size.  He makes the new, enlarged sculpture in clay and then makes a mould from it.  Eventually, after a few more processes, bronze is poured into a mould and that’s the beginning of the finished sculpture!

Here is ‘Speak to us of Crime and Punishment’ from the Gibran Sculpture Series – ‘The Prophet’.  In front of it is the pantograph tool used to create the enlarged version.

Here is the freshly-delivered, modelling clay.  It’s very heavy so it comes on small pallets.  It is wrapped in polythene to keep it moist and workable.  Once it dries it hardens and becomes unusable.

As I said, there are many steps involved to get an original, small, wax sculpture to a finished, full-size work of art.  I’ll show you all the steps as we go along…

…but not a sculpture in sight! 

with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge!
 

Work continues apace in the studios.  There’s a massive amount of work going on.  If you have been following this blog, you will know just how much work is involved to get from an original clay sculpture to a finished bronze casting.  Of course, you can’t pour a casting until you have a mould and here are some moulds ready to go to the foundry for casting.

Lined up on the bench are moulds from the Gibran Sculpture Series – ‘The Prophet’.  ‘Hands in Prayer’; ‘The Prophet’ (the book being held) and ‘Speak to us of Self Knowledge’.  Alongside them are the moulds for ‘8 Months’ and the Brancusi inspired ‘Egghead’.

Nearest to us are the original wax models, waiting their turn to be enlarged.  Further away on the lower bench, are finished moulds.  Next, they will go to the foundry to be used for casting.