How a Sculpture is made

How a sculpture is made:

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Spring Snow by Ross Matteson

Prelude	An honest start
Step 1:	A small reference model
Step 2:	Sculpting full size blue foam original
Step 3:	Covering blue foam original with clay and sculpting detail
Step 4:	Making a rubber mold and duplicating clay original in wax
Step 5:	Covering wax with ceramic shell mold
Step 6:	Melting wax out of ceramic shell mold and then pouring hot bronze into the empty mold
Step 7:	Breaking ceramic shell to reveal rough bronze casting and then welding, grinding and polishing to finish building sculpture
Step 8:	Doing the patina (coloring the finished bronze)
Step 9:	The support form
Step 10:	Attaching the owl and plaque to rock
Step 11:	Making the final presentation

It may be a surprise for you to learn just what it takes to make a cast bronze sculpture! It is a multi-step labor intensive process here illustrated with photographs and written descriptions. My snowy owl sculpture titled Spring Snow is shown being sculpted, molded, cast and built from start to finish. Please Click on each Step or Description above, starting with Step 1. I hope you enjoy this process, some steps of which have been similar in principle for thousands of years!

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