Step One Everything starts with beeswax. I put the wax next to a source of warmth, charcoal fire. The wax then becomes soft and manageable. Then I can start making my sculpture. Daily life will be my source of inspiration. |
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Step Two
After I made the sculpture. I need to prepare the clay with which I cover the wax sculpture. I use a mix of clay -no rocks- and horse or donkey manure. The mix needs to rest a bit. |
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Step Three This is a delicate phase and requires a lot of patience and experience. I cover the wax sculpture with the clay mix. I leave a spot open and let it all dry in the sun. |
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Step Four
When the first layer is dry, I apply a second layer of the clay mix. Sometimes up to ten layers. This depends on the size of the sculpture. |
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Step Five The phase of the lost wax. When the last layer is dry, I put the casting-mould closer and closer to the fire. I let the wax pour out of the mould until the mould is empty. I lose 75% of the wax. This explains the name of this phase. |
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Step Six This is the most difficult phase which requires a lot of physical strength, experience and knowledge. In this phase I select and prepare the material: red cupper, tin, zinc. |
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I place the metal mix in the oven and cover it charcoal from very special woods. |
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The fire in the oven is being built up by bellows. These bellows are moved by a motor wheel, which we move manually for 5-7 hours until the metal mix has reached a temperature of 1500 degrees Celsius and becomes liquid. | |
Step Seven The baking of the moulds on the special wood fire. We have to be careful so the moulds do not crack. At the same time we prepare the metal mix- |
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The metal mix, the bronze, is taken out of the oven with a pair of tongs. | |
One needs to be very careful with the basket and the pair of tongs which are used to pour the metal mix; many accidents have happened before. |
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Step Eight
The pouring. If the metal mix is ready and the moulds are well done, I take them out of the fire and put them -with the opening to the top- straight up. I then pour the liquid metal mix into the mould. |
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During the pouring I need to take care not to drop any pieces of charcoal into the mould. |
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Step Nine I let the moulds cool down for at leads three hours. Often I sprinkle some water on the moulds to cool them off before I break them with a hammer. |
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Since I crack every mould, every sculpture is unique. This is my speciality. Unique bronze sculptures |
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Step Ten
After cleaning the sculptures I polish them. This is done with different files. Fine and less fine |
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Step Eleven and Twelve I wash the sculptures with clean sand and blacken them by a special procedure. Then the unique sculpture is done. |