Thursday, May 15, 2008

The birth of Nosey mouse

It was in the last couple of days of 2006 that Nosey was born.
At least in clay. There was still the trial by fire that had to come before bronzes would emerge.
First I took lots of pictures of the real Nosey, nosing around.

Then I poked and prodded and added to my blob of wax based clay.

I kept poking and prodding and adding until finished.

A fairly lengthy process followed whereby a mold was made (bad news for the clay version, it gets a bit trashed in the process).

Then wax duplicates come from the mold (good news for the immortality of Nosey).

The fine folks at Anderson Enterprise are responsible for casting my mice.

After they've each been invested in their own one time breakable molds, the wax is melted out, and bronze poured in its place. Then they are broken out (sounds very wild west), cleaned up (a bit like me after an exciting feed), patinated and...
...Voila, Nosey mouse is immortal (unless there's ever a countrywide sweep for bronze mice to melt down and use for tiny cannons).Click here to see lots more of my sculptures on my website.

7 comments:

Liz said...

Hey there. Thanks for your comment on my blog. You've got an amazing gift. Animals aren't the easiest to do especially in sculpture - awesome work upload more.

Ps I'm adding your blog onto my Cool Blog list

Cindy said...

Thank you for your comment ... it is always lovely to hear from fellow bloggers. Your sculptures are so lovely .. I especially am drawn to those of the mice! Superb! I look forward to coming back to your blog and website again soon. Cindy

G said...

Very nifty little critters. I only do small bronze pours, but I've always found the process fascinating.

Timothy said...

Steve,

Way to go on your artwork.

I will keep you in mind for some RFP's if I see a need for sculpture.

It would be fun to work on some project.

Best fishes,

Timothy

Lesha said...

Hi! Your work is fantastic--and I think I'm predicting a bronze chicken in your future! I only hope to post some of my works in clay at some point, but I still have a long way to go before a public unveiling. In the meantime, a friend of mine also works in bronze, with emphasis on patinas. You may want to check him out at http://www.bronze-et-al.com/index.html.

All the best, Lesha

Margaret Porter said...

Found your comment on one of my blogs. Love your work--and following your creative process.

design4life said...

Your stuff is awesome! Thanks for your comment at suedesighns4life. I think you're the first since I put it up. I have a journal over at live journal more for personal goofy stuff. There you can collect "friends" by friending them. I haven't figured out how that work over here. It's not quite the same.

Anyway, I like your mouses. My daughter paints and sculpts little critters, I'll share your link with her.