Friday just gone saw the pickup of my two bronze knights in shining armour. We loaded up the truck and my knights, looking more like Egyptian sarcophagi all wrapped up safe in their packaging, were off to their new home.
This project started one year ago alongside other large pieces for the same client. I began by sculpting a 240mm tall maquette (miniature) before moving on to the full scale 1.6m sculpt. It's a little hard to say how much time was spent on the sculpting itself. It was broken up over a few months while I continued to mould and cast another large and involved piece for the same client. Mouldmaking is time sensitive. Sometimes you can't stop until you get to a certain point, and other times you can't do anything but wait! So it was great having this knight to sculpt. He was often patiently waiting, a silent figure in the corner of my workspace. Often startling me when I came around a corner!
I first carved a basic figure out of polystyrene, coated it with a soft sculpting wax and then sculpted the details. Check out my Instagram link to see a quick video of this process. https://www.instagram.com/p/BoLlQObl6PU/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=6p4adjomf4b3
The finished wax knight was moulded in silicone and fiberglass. I worked with Claire Tennant Workshop, together we cold-cast two bronze knights from this mould. http://clairetennant.com.au/
Back at my workspace, the bronze knights were sanded and polished and left to naturally patina while I worked on this next groundbreaking element; the stainless steel detailing. I can tell you, now that the knights are complete, the stainless elements look effortless and sit seamlessly on the sculptures, definitely like they belong. The process on the other hand was far from effortless. It was not at all problematic, the application went according to my plan, but did require a lot of concentration and patience. Thankfully I have plenty of that. I even got to draw on some of my cake decorating skills - expert resin application with a piping bag.
The knights looked very regal with their added bling and swords to match. To finish, a scenic paint wash to give them a bit of age, and being real bronze, they will age and patina further over time in nature’s elements. My client was super pleased with the final result. I look forward to seeing them installed in their new home.
