WHEN CASTING A BRONZE STATUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13647, 15 January 1908, Page 9

WHEN CASTING A BRONZE STATUE .

"Immense pains and immense labour attend the production of a bronze statue of any size, even after the artist has done his work," remarks a sculptor. To begin with, the plaster model has to be completely covered with small lumps of a special kind of sand, sometimes as many as 1500 or 2000 of these pieces being required. After these blocks of sand are dry they are taken off the cast one at a time and carefully put together to form the mould. The latter is then filled with clay, and the same operation is again gone through, a facsimile of the plastercast being thus obtained. "Then comes the most delicate part of the whole work. The clay model, or ' core,' as it is technically called, has to have a-quarter of an inch taken off its entire surface, which, as may readily be imagined, is anything but easy, especially if the subject be at all ornate. "The core' is then again put into the mould— which has, of course, to be reconstructed onto more—being kept exactly in the centre by means of iron rods. "The molten bronze is then poured in from the top, completely filling the space between the 'core' and the mould. Alter it has cooled the latter is again removed and the clay interior extracted, when the statue, somewhat rough and needing a slight touching-up, is revealed."