Recently I was commissioned to make a bronze sculpture as a joint gift from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and Brigham Young University. The final product was produced as part of a lifetime achievement award for Dr. Lee F. Braithwaite who is retiring this month after 47 years of teaching Marine Biology. Â The subject matter featured in the sculpture was a type of giant barnacle called Balanus Nubilus. Most people have seen small barnacles but those I sculpted averaged about 4 inches tall each and these giant barnacles can even grow larger than that. Since this was such a fun and complex project I decided to detail the process and show what I can do with a week and a tight deadline.
Here is the original barnacle that I used as the basis for this sculpture. There were lots of holes and spaces that I filled in with Plasticine to make it suitable to cast.
The modified barnacle with a frame to hold in the rubber
Just after the rubber was poured
Barnacle after the rubber hardened
Inside of the rubber mold
I made a support mold for the rubber to help it while casting the wax
Pouring the melted wax
The wax hardens quickly and since there was foam that hadn’t cured it made it explode around the sides
This is how the wax looks after a bit of cleanup
I bought a chunk of bronze and the best tool to cut it ended up being a hacksaw.
5 hours later of continuous sawing
I cast the wax in a plaster and concrete mixture then melted out the wax with a torch
Recently I was commissioned to make a bronze sculpture as a joint gift from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and Brigham Young University. The final product was produced as part of a lifetime achievement award for Dr. Lee F. Braithwaite who is retiring this month after 47 years of teaching Marine Biology. Â The subject matter featured in the sculpture was a type of giant barnacle called Balanus Nubilus. Most people have seen small barnacles but those I sculpted averaged about 4 inches tall each and these giant barnacles can even grow larger than that. Since this was such a fun and complex project I decided to detail the process and show what I can do with a week and a tight deadline.
