Poodle wax positives for lost wax bronze

This post shows the wax positives that were casted using the molds. The wax castings are hollow with walls ranging in thickness from 1/8" to 3/8". After the wax castings are re-detailed, they will be ready for the "ceramic shell" process.

Each section will be cast in bronze as is and welded back together to form the life size poodle. 

In this image you will note the jaw has been re-attached in order to avoid complex welding issues down the line.

Dog Matrix Mold Fabrication

Cellophane is used to wrap the entire sculpture. This will temporarily protect the dog sculpture from having the water-based clay adhere to my Chavant clay (Chavant NSP hard was used to sculpt the poodle). The water-based clay mass will later be replace by the silicone.

Here you can see where one of the seams with keys is located.  A wall of clay is used to cover the entire area where the silicone will eventually go. The wall of clay is somewhat uniformed in thickness.  

Plaster and hemp are applied over the wall of clay. This section is referred to as the “mother mold”. The mother mold will house the silicone mold and help line up all the keys.  

Here are two completed (limb) molds.

This image depicts the mother mold after the cellophane and water-based clay have been removed.  The other half of the mold will be used to enclose the leg. The seams will also be temporally sealed in order to prevent the silicone from escaping. The silicone will be poured from the highest point of the mother mold.

This image taken minutes after removing one half of the mold. The blue material is the silicone. The silicone is used to capture all the detail from the original sculpture.  The next step is to remove the original clay sculpture from the silicone.

Wax is then poured into the mold in order to produce the wax-positives.  More on this later….

The American Fine Arts Foundry is the Bronze Casting Foundry I am utilizing for this bronze dog composition. The foundry is located in Burbank, California.

click on the logo to visit their site.

Preparing clay dog sculpture for the mold fabrication

This section show how large sculptures are broken down into smaller manageable sections. After the sections have been casted in bronze, they will be welded back together. The original clay sculpture will be reassemble in order to aid the welder.

The tail has been removed

This image show how a section of the jaw has been removed. The torso and legs have also been severed.

This is the rear section of the poodles torso. Red wax is used to seal the foam. Without using wax to seal the foam, the silicone will adhere to the foam and create problems when de-molding.

The limbs and jaw ready for mold fabrication.

Completed Poodle clay sculpture is now ready for the mold process

The clay poodle dog sculpture is now completed. The client will now review the images and make last minute requests for any modifications. Once the poodle sculpture is approved, I will give the entire sculpture a wash with a solvent in order to minimize any tool marks and shavings that may still be visible on the surface. The process will take 2-3 days to allow the solvent to dissolve and ensure the clay returns to its natural hardness.

The solvent is used to slightly soften the clay in order to aid in the blending.

Applying a wash at this stage helps with the surface detail in order to give it a more realistic look and feel. By not cleaning the dog sculpture surface before the mold fabrication will create additional work for me during the wax-positive stage.

Molds capture every detail; therefore, it is wise to only fabricate a mold after everyone is happy with the final clay sculpt.

A wax-positive is an identical replica of this clay sculpture; the only difference is that it is a wax casting from the mold. Wax-positives for most bronze castings are hollow. The walls of the wax cast vary from 1/8” to 5/8” in thickness.

More on the process once the images are available.

View of the under side of Trackers head.

Front view...

Profile of the entire dog sculpt.

The paw area showing the poodles nails. Let me know if you wish to have the toenails shorten.

Tracker (poodle) front leg.

Detailed image of the fur texture.

Another view of the fur texture.

click on any of the images for a better better view

Final details are added to fur texture

Adding the final detail to the poodle’s fur texture. After building up the clay layers for the fur texture I am now using a fine ballpoint tool to create the hairlines. The clay is very hard; therefore, I am only able to work 3-5 hours a day before my hands cramps. It looks like I may miss my target date of Tuesday as the completion date. I will not cut corners; therefore, I anticipate it will only take an additional 2-3 days.

The head, neck, chest areas are completed. Tracker's right side still need to under go the final detail.

Here you can see a detailed view of the ear and head area. A final wash will remove the minute clay shavings. Mineral sprites will be used for the wash.

Here is another view of Tracker's right side that still needs the hairlines applied to the fur clusters.

David, do you wish to have the tip of the jaw narrowed a bit more. I narrowed it once, but I am not sure if it needs to be narrower.

Fur texture for Tracker the poodle

The images on this post show what Tracker looks like after his second coat of clay. I will apply one more coat of clay to finalize the fur texture.

For a better view of the texture, click on the image...

Here is tracker standing on my kitchen table...

I do not remember if Tracker is neutered, for now I made him a full male.

Right side profile.

Left side profile.

First layer of clay for the dog armature

Tracker (poodle) gets his first coat of clay. Two to three layers will follow in order to capture the poodle's fur texture.

The first image shows where the rods became embedded into the legs. Molted clay was allowed to saturate the groove and rod area.

I used a crock pot to melt my bricks of NSP hard Chavant modeling clay. The clay was applied using a brush and spatula.

Here you can see where I reattached the head to the body. A 3/4" x 12" pipe was used to join the two sections. Clay was then brushed on to fuse the sections.

The additional layers of clay will fill in the areas that do not look quite right. For instance the rib and neck sections.

The ears and jaw areas will also be revisited.