Foundry cast small bronze owl
A foundry bronze in the palm of your hand!
Hot cast using the traditional lost-wax method, these small bronze owl sculptures make wonderful, thoughtful gifts and are very satisfying to both hold and collect.
They may be small on stature but they’re big on character and form!
How are they made?
I start each sculpture in exactly the same way, with a bag of professional grade clay.
These sweet little owls were moulded from glaze fired pieces for that extra smooth finish.
The plaster moulds were made, followed by silicon moulds.
To create each owl, hot wax is poured into those silicon moulds to create an exact copy of each piece.
These wax copies are then dipped multiple times into a ceramic slurry to form an outer coating to the wax.
Once dry, they’re then put in the furnace and the wax melts out, leaving a hollow ceramic shell.
It’s this shell that the molten bronze is then poured into.
Once the bronze has cooled, the ceramic shell is knocked off to reveal the bronze casting beneath. The inside is ground out and then finished by hand.
Then comes the patination process – a combination of heat and different chemicals to produce different colours.
Once the patina is complete, little owl gets all hot and bothered again before a generous coating of wax is applied to protect the finish. They’re allowed to cool, then buffed to a shine.
