SMELTING PLANT

SMELTING PLANT

Smelting plant : an unalterable know-how for thousands of years

Bronze sculptures have existed for thousands of years and their manufacturing process has almost not changed.

1 - Artwork creation

Sylvie Mangaud sculps with wax, plaster or clay.

2 - Moulding

To create a bronze sculpture from the wax, one creates a cast in elastomere and pours in bronze. It allows to produce the same sculpture many times.

3 - The wax

Then she pours a wax on the elastomer mold and make the necessary alterations so that a system of feeding and evacuation allows the molten bronze to replace the air and the gas.

4 - The cast

The wax is placed in a refractory mold with vents to avoid having an air bubble which is then deposited in an oven. The wax will melt and give way to molten bronze. This is the most spectacular phase of the foundry’s work. In the refractory mold emptied of its wax during cooking, the molten bronze is cast.

5 - The carving

The carver cuts the vents, welds the different parts if needed and finishes. Chasing requires a lot of skill. It must remove imperfections due to melting. Sylvie Mangaud checks at this stage that the original model is well respected.

6 - The patina

Using a blowtorch, the skater applies hot various acids and pigments on the sculpture that can achieve the desired colors. Subsequently, it is the oxidation that gives the metal its patina.

Sylvie Mangaud works most of her pieces with La Fonderie FUSIONS located in Auvergne, France.