These figures are the result of a bronze casting workshop in Kinsale, Cork, Ireland. I was introduced to hand-built equipment – a kiln and a furnace, plus a roofer’s torch and butane gas as fuel. The students used the lost wax technique: we made models from casting wax, enveloped them in a mixture of horse dung (matured!) and clay, and fired the clay to melt the wax core. This clay mould was then filled with molten bronze – a task we weren’t allowed to do ourselves, much to my relief – handling a crucible with red-hot molten metal is quite scary. Grinding away casting seams and the application of patination media added the finishing touch.
The rather squarish shape of the figures’ heads reveal where the casting funnel was attached to the clay mould, and the “skirt” of the female figure appeared accidentally because I didn’t press the clay-dung mixture hard enough around the wax model. Learning curve…
Bronze, patina. 2007.
Height: 13 cm and 15 cm
