Lost-wax bronze, cast and finished by hand. Editions are numbered, and when the last one leaves the mould is broken.
See the editionsEverything here starts as a wax. The original is modelled in the studio, a rubber mould is taken off it, and a hollow wax is pulled from that mould for every casting in the edition. Each wax is chased by hand where the seams fall, sprued, and then dipped eight or nine times in ceramic slurry until the shell is thick enough to hold molten metal. The shell goes into the kiln and the wax runs out and is gone. That is the whole reason it is called lost wax: nothing survives the process except the bronze.
An edition is a promise about how many will ever exist. When we say edition of twelve we pour twelve, stamp each one under the base with its number and the year it was cast, and then cut the rubber mould up. There are no artist's proofs held back to sell quietly later, and no second edition two years on in a slightly different size. Buy number four of twelve and there will only ever be twelve. That is either worth something to you or it is not, and we would rather you knew that before you asked the price.
Bronze comes out of the shell the colour of a two-rand coin and holds that colour for about a week. Every piece goes to the bench at the back, where the metal is warmed with a torch and ferric or cupric nitrate is brushed on in thin coats — ferric for the browns, cupric for the greens — and then sealed with wax. Patina is chemistry that carries on after it leaves us. A piece that lives on a sunny stoep in Muizenberg will move a shade in its first year and then settle. That is not a fault, and we will not varnish it out.
The kudu has stood on our stoep through four winters and the sea air has only improved it. Marina Booysen, Kalk Bay I came in to price a house number and left having commissioned a head of my father. Themba Ngubane, Observatory We had the whole graduate show poured here and not one casting came back with a fault. Sculpture department, Michaelis
Dido Valley Road, Salt River. Pours are on Thursdays and you are welcome to stand and watch from behind the yellow line.
