Sculpted, Cast into Bronze, & Patina Finished
By Justin W Taylor
About 3200 years ago people began casting large and small bronze sculptures. After all those years we are still casting bronze sculptures in the same manner. I have created my own twist on this ancient art form. I worked for a few years in a bronze casting foundry. There I had the opportunity to learn the different steps of the lost wax process and I specialized in doing patina. This is the finish that is applied to the bronze to give the metal its colors. There I learned how do the traditional brown and green patina’s and even some of the marbles and stone finishes. While working in the foundry I had the opportunity to sculpt and do my own casting on my own time, after work and on the weekends. I spent many long hours utilizing that opportunity. It was in that time that I came up with an idea of sculpting a Bas-Relief, casting it into bronze, and then finishing it with a bright patina finish.
I had from a young age always had a thing for sunsets. When I look back at drawings I had done in elementary it was not uncommon that it was a simply drawn sun cresting behind mountains with some clouds.
So my idea was there but it took a lot more to get it to work out. I started right away and sculpted a scene from a picture I had taken form Orcas Island. I then started it through the casting process which in lost wax casting takes a month at best. So when I got to the step of pouring the 2000 degree molten bronze into the shell, something went wrong and the shell broke. It was back to the start. I sculpted a new scene and tried again. It too broke it wasn’t till the fifth try that I worked out the kinks and was able to finally, after months of failed attempts, get a raw bronze casting to be able to try the patina finish on that, to this point had only been an idea in my imagination. The patina went well. Compared to my finishes now it was very simple but it was a great starting point to go from.
Its been just over a year now and I am still as excited about this idea as when I first had it. I feel like my work is only getting better, they are selling better then I could have imagined and so that tells me I’m not the only one who likes them.
My young family and I moved back to Orcas Island where I had grown up in part because this is where all my art work was being based of. I guess growing up in such a beautiful place made such an impression on me that I am now able to share some of that beauty with others through my art.
info@OrcasIslandSculptureGarden.com
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