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| Recovery Effort Praised – The head of INTERPOL has praised police authorities in Germany and Ukraine for their “exemplary international collaboration” in a recent operation in which a stolen Caravaggio painting was recovered and an alleged international art theft gang broken up. The painting, known as the “Taking of Christ” or the “Kiss of Judas” and reportedly worth tens of millions of Euros, is considered a national treasure in Ukraine. It was stolen two years ago from the Museum of Western European and Oriental Art in Odessa. |
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Sculpture
The Lost Wax Casting Process
Lost wax, or the cire-perdue
process, is the traditional method of bronze casting. The
method has been around for roughly 4,000 years and was used
by the early Egyptians, Greeks, Africans and masters of the
Italian Renaissance. Today bronze is still used to create
coins, statues, decorative articles and much more. Small
bronze coins can be found in pockets and cash registers
around the world.
Despite the technology
explosion of today, the lost wax method of sculpture and art
object duplication has changed very little since its
inception. The anticipated result of the process is to be
able to duplicate an item for marketing in multiples rather
than a single item. The process is quite straightforward,
but each step must be adhered to with sharp attention to
detail.
The first step in the lost
wax sculpture/art object duplication is to create in either
wax or special sculptor's clay a master item. For the sake
of explanation, we will call the project in this piece a
sculpture. While creating the original, it is wise to
consider the undercuts (areas that go under limbs for
instance) and open areas inside the shape. These will
require additional vents and access for your casting
material to enter and exit.

Once the original is refined
and ready for duplication, flexible molds must be made of
the original. To continue, place a layer of clay around the
entire sculpture. Around the layer of clay, build a support
mold of plaster. The plaster coating is put on with sleeves
between all pieces so that it will come off in sections.
This enables a three-dimensional item to be replicated. When
the plaster is dry, it is removed; the clay is taken out and
the plaster shell is replaced. The void between the
sculpture and the plaster is where the flexible rubber is
poured. The plaster is removed, the rubber is cut open and
the original sculpture is released. The rubber mold is set
back into the plaster shell, where it is ready for the wax
to be poured.
Melted wax is poured into the
mold and left for a couple of minutes. This short time
creates a thin cast of the sculpture. Excess wax is poured
away and recycled into another pouring. After the wax cast
is cool, its hollow shape can be removed. Hollow casts are
made because they are easier to manage, less costly and do
not warp like solid, thick bronze items often do.
Any flaws, such as pinholes,
obvious sectional marks, etc., are removed (chased). A
network of vents and branches are added. These channel the
metal flow and eliminate air pockets. The entire package is
dipped into a slurry of thin ceramic clay. Sand is applied
to this layer while wet and is then left to dry in a special
climate-controlled environment. Eight to ten layers such as
this are added to insure proper support for what will be the
metal casting.
The slurry-coated wax figure
is placed in a burnout oven and heated to about 1800
degrees. This does two things: burns out the wax and hardens
the shell. It is now ready for liquid metal. Bronze is
melted (at around 2000 degrees) and poured into the hot
slurry shell. Upon cooling, the shell is cracked, chipped
and sandblasted away to reveal an exact duplicate of the wax
figure.
All vents and branches that
are also cast in bronze at the same time the sculpture is
being created are cut away. Any unevenness or seams, lumps,
etc., are chased (cleaned). If any parts of the sculpture
had to be removed during the casting process, they are now
welded back on. If a bronze base is made, it is now
attached, and the entire item is grounded and tooled with
high RPM air tools to smooth all uneven areas. One final
sandblast is done and the piece is ready for a patina.
Several colors might be combined for the desired effect, and
they are applied by dipping, pouring or dripping onto the
bronze. When heated with a torch, the chemicals change the
surface color of the metal and become more permanent. A
sealer of some sort of wax is used and is most often applied
with a brush and torched. After a final polish, the piece is
completed.
Foundries often offer tours
or allow visits during the shell, casting and finishing
processes. Find a receptive foundry owner and take a
first-hand look at a seldom seen and not truly appreciated
craftsman at work.
Note: For each and
every duplicate casting produced, a new wax model is poured
and the whole procedure must be repeated. Weeks of work are
involved in each reproduction, and each is an original made
from its own wax model. Because of the subtle nuances of the
process, no two are exactly alike. |
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