Sculpture as an art form dates back almost 40,000 years, with the oldest known examples being small figurines carved from stone, bone or mammoth ivory.
Today, sculptures typically go through lost wax casting, a method that can take a foundry several weeks to complete for a single piece. Most begin as a clay or wax model, which is then reproduced in a more permanent material, usually bronze, resin or cold cast metal, through a mould making and casting process.
Here's the process broken down.
It starts with an idea in clay or wax
Almost every sculpture begins life in a soft, workable material such as clay or wax. This is where the artist works out proportion, pose and character, often building the form over an armature (an internal support structure) and reworking it by hand.
Sculptor Sally Grant uses this initial approach for her figurative works, shaping them first in clay prior to casting in bronze or cold cast metal options.
From clay to bronze, the lost wax process
Bronze is what most people picture when they think of sculpture. It's produced using lost wax casting, a method that has barely changed in thousands of years:
- A mould is taken from the original clay or plaster model.
- A hollow wax copy is cast inside that mould.
- The wax copy is coated in a heat resistant ceramic shell.
- The shell is fired in a kiln. The wax runs out and is lost, leaving a hollow cavity in its exact shape, which gives the technique its name.
- Molten bronze is poured into the cavity.
- Once cooled, the ceramic shell is broken away. Foundry workers chase the surface, weld sections together and apply a patina (a chemical colour treatment) to give the bronze its final tone.
It's a slow, physical process involving several specialists between the artist's studio and the finished piece leaving the foundry, which is a large part of why bronze sculpture carries the price it does.
Featured bronzes such as Pig by Christian Maas, The Race by Michael Keane, and Nick Bibby's Kingfisher, exemplify the extraordinary precision made possible by the lost wax technique.
It isn't always bronze
Resin and cold cast metal, where powdered metal is mixed into a resin and cast in a mould, offer a lighter and often an alternative to bronze, while still capturing fine surface detail. Sally Grant moves between both, casting the same clay original into either bronze or cold cast metals depending on the piece.
The main differences from bronze casting:
- No firing or molten metal, so the process is faster.
- The mould making stage is similar, just without the heat.
- The result is lighter in weight, which can suit indoor displays or larger pieces.
Why this matters when you're buying
Once you've seen how many hands and hours sit behind a single sculpture, from mould making through to casting and finishing, the cost of owning one starts to make a lot more sense. You're buying weeks of skilled, specialist work, not just an object.
As a Newcastle contemporary art gallery, Hancock Gallery is proud to represent artists working across all of these methods, and to help new collectors understand what they're looking at, as much as what they're looking for.
Ready to see the process in the finished work? Explore 3D artists in the Bronze Sculpture Collection, or browse Sally Grant's available pieces directly.
