bronze foundry to cast a piece...or go cold cast? help for marine sculpt

[joez2391]

Kind of not movie prop related, but I know you guys can help me with this. I am an underwater photographer and recently decided to try working on some marine life sculptures (smallish less than a foot tall to start off with) and I was considering the possibility of getting them cast in bronze, but in all honestly I have no idea the cost. I am not new to sculpting so that wont be a problem, just figuring out if I should go the cold cast route instead. My first piece is going to be a manta ray posing kind of like my picture here:




so I don't know how difficult that would be to do a cold cast due to their thin wings and cephalic fins. can you cold cast with thin resin mixed with bronze powder so it gets in all the thin places? All the videos I've seen have had people brush in the bronze mix in a thin coat first but not just pour it in. Thanks for any help, I'll be starting the sculpt this week.

 

[Goldie1471]

I have never done it only watched a few videos of the process which is usually brushed in or poured in, shaken about then emptied out, then more powder is added to the first coat or 2 of resin, I guess that the outside is done to allow a chemical patina to be added, as it probably wouldn't work if the bronze powder was fully embedded in the resin but i may be wrong.

 

[Dericrw]

I have done several cold cast bronze busts. Just mix your onyx resin with the desired metal powder. Pour into the mold and slush it around. May use a brush to move the resin to hard spots and undercuts. Two coats with the resin/powder should give you a good thick coat. You can then follow with more resin coats or foam fill.

 

[joez2391]

thanks guys! Dericrw did you find that the cold cast bronze gave a good impersonation of bronze in feel (not weight but more of the cold feeling to the touch)...can you add some pics of the bronze busts? thanks!