Tail Wind, sculpted by John Tolmay, measures in at 9” tall and 4” wide.
Though this giraffe sculpture is of an impressively small scale, it has caused big excitement in our foundry.
John’s remarkable detail in all of his sculpture has left many of us in awe and Tail Wind hasn’t disappointed either. Take note of how delicate the legs and necks are in the featured photo!
The process of getting Tail Wind into bronze was a delicate and detailed one too! Here we are creating the 1st mold that we will get our wax patterns from. This will take several layers of rubber that will get every little detail, even a finger print. The second part of this mold is the plaster mother mold that ensures the rubber keeps it’s proper shape. Once the mold is labeled and dried we will move to the next step in the process.
Here we are casting the wax patterns. The red wax rods added to the clay while making the mold now come into play. These rods act as vents when pouring in the wax, preventing any air from being trapped in parts of the sculpture such as the hooves, tail and ears.
Once the wax giraffes are pulled from their mold, they are ready to be worked also known as chasing the wax.
Even though we take precautions when making the mold to ensure a full and accurate pour of the sculpture, seamlines happen, so chasing the wax to remove the seamlines and quality checking to make sure the sculpture is just as John sculpted it originally is a must.
After the giraffes and base are chased, they will be set up on a cup with vents, and added gates which will be needed when we cast in the bronze to aid in the flow of metal and release of air and gas to create a clean casting!
Before that, we add 8 layers of investment mold onto the wax patterns of Tail Wind, just like the layers of rubber in the first mold, the investment mold will capture every detail!
After the last layer of investment mold is added it is time to melt out the wax inside and make a shell of the giraffes.
Now the investment mold is a hollow shell and extremely hot, right about now the bronze is in its molten state.
Another satisfying part of the lost wax process is pouring in the bronze. It so mesmerizing.
Once the casting has cooled off, it’s time to remove the shell encasing the giraffes, so we use a hammer and chisel to chip it away.
When most of the shell is chipped away, we sandblast the unreachable areas and chase the bronze giraffes, removing imperfections and weld and solder the giraffes back together and on their base.
Back to its original design, Tail Wind, is ready for some definition, so we begin the patination.
The artist of Tail Wind, John Tolmay, envisioned the sculpture to resemble real giraffes, so our expert pateneur adds all the spectacular details using heat and chemicals.
It’s pretty wonderful to see Tail Wind change in a matter of second or minutes with the use of heat and chemicals.
Each step of the lost wax process has so much attention to detail, there is art and passion in each part of the process.
Once the Tail Wind is complete we package it and it is ready to be sent to its new home.
For more information on the Artist, John Tolmay, visit his website here.
For the FULL video on Tail Wind, sculpted by John Tolmay through The Lost Wax Process, click here.