Sculpture

yangxp asked:


Collectors of sculpture know that it provides a presence like no other art form. Whether indoors or out, sculpture creates a dynamic space for itself and becomes the focal point of any environment. The care that most sculpture needs is usually minimal, but NESA members are often asked for advice on sculpture maintenance and repair. Here is a list of tips for the care and preservation of sculpture in and around your home:

1. Sculpture that is always indoors, whether wood, stone, or metal, needs only to be dusted with a soft cloth. Do not use waxes or polishes of any kind. Some brushes can damage a bronze patina or a soft stone.

2. Ceramic or cloth sculpture should usually be handled as little as possible, and dusted with a soft duster if at all. In some cases, a ceramic or stone sculpture can be washed, but always consult the artist before doing so to make sure no finishes were used that are incompatible with soap and water.

3. Outdoor sculpture made of granite or cement can be washed with a household cleanser and plastic brush to remove dirt and some types of stains.

4. Marble sculpture displayed outdoors can absorb minerals from rain, soil, and the atmosphere and become stained. Consult a professional for your particular type of stain. Tip: do not place a marble sculpture directly on the ground, where it can absorb moisture and staining minerals from the soil or plants. Place it on a plastic or granite tile or a stand.

5. Bronze sculpture that is displayed outside needs to be re-waxed annually or semi-annually to preserve its patina, depending on your climate. Use a clear, solvent-free wax like Butchers’ wax and a stiff yet soft brush, like a stenciling brush. Apply a thin coat of wax on a dry, sunny, warm day and buff gently with a soft cloth (do not leave any chunks of wax in crevices). Wrapping metal sculpture in the winter can protect it from salt, sand, and other corroding elements including ice. If your sculpture has discolored and needs to be re-painted, consult with us or a local bronze foundry that specializes in art bronze.

6. Materials like “bonded bronze” or “bonded marble” or “cold cast bronze” are really made of plastic resins with a small amount of bronze or marble powder added to the first casting layer. The sculpture should be treated like a plastic resin sculpture.

7. Sculpture made from plastic and plastic resins (epoxy, bonded bronze, bonded marble, polyurethane and polyester resins, acrylic, etc.) should not be displayed outdoors in full sun unless you know that the artist has made special preparations to treat the surface with a ultra-violet resistant finish appropriate for your climate. Many plastics are highly UV reactive and will degrade in heat and sunlight. When displaying your plastic sculptures indoors, treat as you would a ceramic sculpture. Some resins are brittle and should not be handled excessively.

8. Sculpture that is made of plaster, or has been painted, should always be protected from water and dampness and should be rarely handled to protect the fragile surface.

9. It is usually not advisable to place a sculpture in an enclosed room with a hot tub, jacuzzi, or sauna. The extreme humidity and chlorine or bromine fumes can quickly corrode metal and form deposits on other materials.

 

 



JOAN

Mayoor Patel asked:


Frogs gifts tend to come available in many different forms, but the most fantastic and majestics form so far for me is the bronze frog. Throughout history the bronze sculpture has been a favourite with all artists and sculptors, which is why if you ask any frog enthusiast, why they place the bronze frog in the most prominet place in the house, its because of its rare beauty and devine historic prescence.

Bronze can be left outdoors throughout the year. For those who live in the north where snow falls regulary throughout the winter, leave your sculpture outside to create a beautiful view all year. Cast in the ancient lost wax tradition, this bronze will live on throughout your lifetime and beyond. It will require little care apart from a polish every now and again and will look majestic as the sun bounces of it in the glade.

Bronze sculptures will last a lifetime and make wonderful additions to the home, office or as a gift for the family, friends, clients and employees. Try to sway from the normal types of gift and hit someone with this you wont be disapointed with the reaction, and they will remeber you for years, mentioning you to everyone.

When you see a bronze frog, you will immediately notice that its skin is smooth. The male species have their throats in a certain shade of yellow. As for their legs, the hind is measurably long and their toes are webbed.

And because these frogs are majestic in form, artists usually choose them to be art subjects. The most preferred pieces of which are frog sculptures. These sculptures are regularly placed outdoors and are mostly seen in the garden. In fact they are mainly a garden item such so that garden centres have now started stocking them, with the more expensive models ready to order.

If you dont want to splash out the full whack for the cost of one of these Bronze furnishings you can purchase a replica. These bronze frog animals are perfect for pools and ponds. Giant-sized bronze frogs are even built as customized fountains inside luxurious gardens. Bronze frogs art pieces, mainly because of their color, connote lavishness wherever it may be placed. Either indoors or outdoors, you will surely marvel at how opulent a bronze frog art design may be.

Start your search online and visit garden centres for a more tangible viewing.



ABEL

Jordan McPelt asked:


Bronze sculpture is a beautiful art medium that can produce a lot of great items such as busts and other types of sculptures. Bronze is the most popular type of metal for casting sculptures. The reason is because many common bronze alloys have an unusual quality for metals that give it time to slightly expand before the bronze sets, so it has the ability to fill all of the fine details inside a mold. Bronze is a strong metal and does not get brittle. This helps when making a bronze sculpture; many other types of material such as ceramic and stone can have the tendency of being brittle and chipping. The one disadvantage to bronze sculptures is the value of the material. Very few ancient bronze sculptures still exist because many of the sculptures were melted down to commemorate a victory over another country or melted down to make weapons from.

The Greeks were the first people to begin scaling life size figures out of bronze. There are still a few examples of this such as the Victorious Athlete which was preserved by seawater and was rescued to display in a museum. There are many more Roman examples of bronze sculptures. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians also learned various techniques in order to create beautiful masterpieces in bronze. Many of these statues and other works of bronze are displayed in museums today.

The process of making bronzes are complicated, but may people take on the challenge in order to make something beautiful out of this particular type of metal. There are different types of casting processes that can be used to cast bronze, including lost-wax casting, investment casting, sandcasting, and centrifugal casting. All of these skills can be learned by sculptures, and once they learn all of them they can stick with the particular casting process that they prefer most.

The way that most large sculptures are made is by making multiple smaller molds in order to get the right proportions and pose. Then, an intermediate mold is made to perfect all of the find details. If it is an extremely large scaled sculpture, one more intermediate may be made. The final sculpture is made with a material on the insides so that the piece is not as heavy as pure bronze. The modern way of making a large sculpture is also utilizing welding techniques in order to put pieces together rather than trying to get a perfect sculpture out of one pour in a mold.

The way an artist will finish their bronze sculpture is by polishing the bronze. Some artists will put a corrosive material like patina on that will give them more ability to control the final color and finish of the sculpture. There is also a softer bronze called ormolu that is coated with gold to produce more of a matte gold finish. It was popular in 18th century France and is found in a lot of wall sconces, clocks, and garnitures. It makes a clear ring when tapped, so you can tell that they are made of bronze and not a cheaper metal.



BUFORD

John Hacking asked:


Sculpture has been used for centuries to enhance a garden’s natural beauty. Every garden would have a little spot which could be better highlighted using an unusual sculpture, a bird bath or water feature rather than just another plant.

Careful positioning of these sorts of things has traditionally been used in garden feng shui to bring all the elements into the garden. Any size garden can be enhanced with sculpture as it draws the eye to a focal point as you walk around the garden.

Metal sculpture is often chosen due to its durability to withstand the variances of weather and the uniqueness that the artist can create. It is often heavier and more stable with the ability to be pegged to the ground which is important in strong winds. With the correct coating outdoor sculpture should last for years in the garden.

One sculptor who is creating uniquely Australian garden sculpture is Peter Kozina of Brisbane’s bayside. Peter’s works are made completely from recycled steel hence he goes by the business name “Recycled Treasures”. He is often inspired in his work by what he sees in a discarded piece of scrap metal whether it be a piece from an old plough, a brush hook or railway spike from days gone by. He immediately sees an emu, eagle or perhaps a person’s stance in a shape he discovers buried in the scrap heaps of Queensland.

Recycling has long been a passion of Peter’s and he likes nothing better than making something worthwhile out of supposed “junk”. He was featured in a segment on Channel Nine’s Brisbane Extra last year which highlighted the benefits of recycling in the Brisbane area.

Peter also makes a series of garden ornaments which feature terracotta pots which can be planted up as an added feature in the home garden. Old pushbike wheels have been transformed into penny farthings which look really colourful when the 3 pots are planted with your favourite annuals.

He turns a rusty wheelbarrow into a real talking point complete with a huge central terracotta bowl and 4 smaller pots surrounding it enhanced with scrollwork. Another popular item is his unique birdbaths. No two are the same as he builds the stand out of an old car or truck spring which leads up to the bath encased in a discarded basketball hoop with 2 feeders on either side.

Water features are popular in modern garden design. Peter makes his uniquely Australian by using farm posts with an old brass tap attached. It flows into a bucket so for the water saving folk it uses only a small amount of water to get that soothing sound of running water.

Peter is aware of the difficulty metal features have in being able to withstand the weather. All his garden ornaments have been coated with a high quality etch primer followed by an enamel exterior paint. His individual sculptures have been specially treated with a formula he has created to allow the natural look of rusted metal to be maintained without rusting any further.

All the purchaser has to do is spray it occasionally with clear lacquer if it is in direct sunlight and the sculpture once again has that wonderful lustre. Peter’s motto has always been : “Bringing the past to life in sculpture”.



YOUNG

yangxp asked:


Marble sculpture is the result of forming 3-dimensional visually interesting objects from marble.

Carving marble into sculpture is an activity older than civilization itself. Prehistoric sculptures were usually human forms, such as the Venus of Willendorf and the faceless statues of the Cycladic cultures of ancient Greece. Later cultures devised animal, human-animal and abstract forms in marble. The earliest cultures used abrasive techniques, and modern technology employs diamond tools and other devices. But for most of human history, sculptors used hammer and chisel as the basic tools for carving marble.

The process of marble sculpture

The work begins with the selection of a marble for carving. The artist may carve in the direct way, by carving without a model, creating a form or figure from scratch, with only the idea in his mind as a guideline, sketching on the block of marble and developing the work along the way. This method can be inspiring but can also present major problems when too much marble is removed in previous stages.

Or the sculptor may begin with a clearly defined model to be copied in marble. Traditionally the sculptor would begin by forming a model in clay ,wax or fiberglass, and then copying this in marble by measuring with calipers or a pointing machine. This method leaves much less chance for error, so the desired result can be achieved as expected. This method is also used when the carving is done by other sculptors, such as artisans or employees of the sculptor.

Some artists use the marble itself as inspiration; the Renaissance artist Michelangelo claimed that his job was to free the human form trapped inside the block.

Carve in the direct way

1. Roughing out

When he is ready to carve, the artist usually begins by knocking off large portions of unwanted marble. For this task he may select a point chisel, which is a long, hefty piece of steel with a point at one end and a broad striking surface at the other. A pitching tool may also be used at this early stage; which is a wedge-shaped chisel with a broad, flat edge. The pitching tool is useful for splitting the marble and removing large, unwanted chunksThe sculptor also selects a mallet, which is a hammer with a broad, barrel-shaped head. The artist places the point of the chisel or the edge of the pitching tool against a selected part of the marble,then swings the mallet at it with the strongest possible stroke. He must be careful to strike the end of the tool accurately;the smallest miscalculation candamage the sculptor’s hand. When the mallet connects to thetool, energy is transferred along the tool, shattering the marble. Most sculptors work rhythmically, turning the tool with each blow so that the marble is removed quickly and evenly. This is the “roughing out” stage of the sculpting process.

2. Refining

Once the general shape of the statue has been determined,the sculptor uses other tools to refine the figure. A toothed chisel or claw chisel has multiple gouging surfaces which create parallel lines in the marble. These tools are generally used to add texture to the figure. An artist might mark out specific lines by using calipers to measure an area of marble to be addressed, and marking the removal area with pencil, charcoal or chalk. The marble carver generally uses a shallower stroke at this point in the process. The roughing-out stage requires direct contact with the marble at a 90 degree angle, but with refining strokes the sculptor holds the tool at an angle of 45 degrees or less.

3.Final stages

Eventually the sculptor has changed the marble from a rough block into the general shape of the finished statue. Tools called rasps and rifflers are then used to enhance the shape into its final form. A rasp is a flat, steel tool with a coarse surface. The sculptor uses broad, sweeping strokes to remove excess marble as small chips or dust. A riffler is a smaller variation of the rasp, which can be used to create details such as folds of clothing or locks of hair.The final stage of the carving process is polishing. Sandpaper can be used as a first step in the polishing process, or sand cloth. Emery, a marble that is harder and rougher than the sculpture media, is also used in the finishing process. This abrading, or wearing away, brings out the color of the marble, reveals patterns in the surface and adds a sheen. Tin and iron oxides are often used to give the marble a highly reflective exterior.

Marble Sculpture carved according to model

1.Prepair Block

2.Carve according to model

3.Refining

4.Polished



ALDEN