bronze casting, part 1

For the past few weeks in my metal sculpture class we have been working on our final bronze casting project using the 'lost-wax' process. The very first task is to model a figure out of wax - the wax we use is called micro-crystalline wax, which is softer and much easier to work with than paraffin/beeswax. The form can be made using an additive or subtractive method - I used the additive method to form the Westie's body and fur, but carved away as I saw needed for the detailing. We were given two class periods to work on our figures, and the third class was dedicated to gating and venting them, which I will describe in the next installment.