Maquette in bronze

The figure of Matthew, Trim the cat and the base map are cast to bronze separately and assembled.  I had originally conceived it as one cast; the figure merged into the base.  As the maquette developed however, I felt that the base needed to be crisp and clean-cut against the textured, organic feel of the figurative elements. I felt that it was more in keeping for the elements to be cast apart and then joined.

Ben is a master of chasing metal. Bronze sculptures are cast in sections (with sprues for running metal and releasing air), welded together and cleaned back to the original form.  It takes precision and a good eye to do this well and Ben has both.  Here he is positioning and marking the contact parameters prior to drilling the fixings.

I check the position.  With his left leg so far out, making the contact points roughly equidistant from the circumference would send his head and torso too far over to the right leg side, so I juggle this to get a balance.

Scott does wonders with chemicals and can transform base metals into pretty much anything. He is also a man of karmic patience.  This is the first of his three attempts to read my mind as to how I wanted the base to look.