How to Choose Best Casting Technique for Sculpture
The quality and cost of bronze / aluminum casting for sculptures is greatly affected by the casting technique a foundry employ. Tany Foundry summarize the related knowledge according to its past experience and create this chart to help artist to choose the optimal technique for their sculptural projects. Lost wax casting Sand casting Technical WorkflowMaster pattern - Rubber Molding - Wax - ceramic shelling - Bronze casting - Chasing - Finishing - Patina Master pattern - Sand molding - Bronze casting - Chasing - Finishing - Patina Eligible casting material for sculptural project - Bronze; - Brass; - Aluminum; - Stainless steel;- Bronze; - Brass; - Aluminum; - Stainless steel; Key StepsRubber Molding; FinishingSand Molding; Finishing Ideal project scopeSmall and medium sized works with textured details ( e.g: life size bust and figurative sculpture )Medium to monumental works with less details Pros- Lost wax casting can represent details of the sculpture very well, especially sculpture with lots of textures; - It costs less when you need to cast multiple editions from the same rubber mold; - There is no molding line like sand casting, which means better finishing quality of bronze- The foundry can gain much bigger one single bronze casting piece from sand casting; - It can minimize the potential distortion happening during bronze casting, which means better integrity and nice shape. - It costs ess than lost wax casting on monumental sculpture and the turnaround time is shorter. Cons- It costs more than sand casting when it is monumental sculpture. - The casting may get distorted, especially for the sculpture with geometry shape like straight line and edges. - The turnaround time is longer than sand casting because a rubber mold and wax is required before casting.- Sand casting is not very good to capture complciated textured details on sculpture like lost wax casting. - It requires very experienced artisans to perform sand molding - There may be trace of molding line left on the surface of sculpture. Below are a few cases made by Tany Foundry. Lost wax casting Sand casting ...
Read MoreCase Study: Bronze Bull
Tany Foundry just cast a 12.5 feet long bronze bull. Here is the process how we make it. Step One: Scanning maquette and generate 3D model. Step Two: Sculpture enlargement. We enlarge the sculpture to 12.5 feet long. Step Three: Sand molding and bronze casting. We sections the pattern for bronze casting and assembly it bull later. The material we use is silicon bronze Everdur. Step Four: Finishing and patina. Our artisans carefully grind and sand the welding seam, sand blast and do patina on bronze. Click the image below for estimate of your own sculpture project. We will get back to you within 12...
Read MoreGold Leafing Bronze sculpture
Tany Foundry has been exploring the best practice on gold leafing bronze sculpture for 30 years. Here is one of our recent case. The sculpture is a 410MM diameter Medusa sculpture. Here is a brief documentation on how we make it. Step One: Digital modeling. There are many popular PC software for digital modeling, like Zbrush, Maya, Rhino etc. Step 2: 3D printing Step 3: silicon rubber molding & Wax work Step 4: Bronze casting, Gold leafing. We cast the sculpture with silicon bronze and gold leafing it with 24K gold. Feel free to contact us know if you have any...
Read MoreMirror Polished Stainless steel Sculpture
Mirror polished Stainless steel sculpture features highly reflective and long lasting finishing. If done well, the visual impact is stunning. It is also known that mirror polishing is not an easy job. Polishing is time consuming and requires much time and effort to do. The artisan has to be very experienced to make sure the work is done properly. Here is polished stainless steel sculpture Tany Foundry fabricated. The sculpture is 6.5 feet tall, It is made with stainless steel grade 316. The workflow: Maquette – jig building – stainless steel cladding – finishing – mirror polishing. The sculpture is 7 feet tall. We build a jig based on the maquette. The scale of jig is strictly following the maquette. Then we fabricate the stainless steel based on the jig we just built. We use stainless steel grade 316 for fabrication. The sheet is carefully cut, bent and welt to make sure they fit with the jig perfectly. The jig is removed from stainless steel cladding. We measure every line of the sculpture to make sure the size is correct. I am testing the polishing quality of the sculpture. This is final work of the sculpture. We’d like to hear your comments. Feel free to let me know if you have any technical question. We will assist you technically or make a quote for your own project. Please contact...
Read MoreHow It Is Made Series: Larger than Life Size Soldier
Tany Foundry just accomplish a larger than life size sculpture. Here is a short description how we make it. Sculpture profile: Solider: 1.5 times larger life size figure Material: Bronze Method: Sand casting Bronze casting by Tany Foundry Step One: Digital scanning. The digital file is gained by scanning a monumental soldier sculpture with a portable 3D scanner. Step Two: CNC Milling and Finishing Step Three: Sand Molding; bronze casting Feel free to contact us if you have any question on how we cast this sculpture in bronze or you need a bidding for your own...
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