Is loose material inside bronze statue common?

Casting a bronze statue?

• I'm creating a special sculpture for my grandmother who passed away a year and a half ago. I want to make a statue of both my grandmother and grandfather standing together holding hands (replicating a photo I found of them when they were first married) and cast the statue in bronze. This statue will hopefully be placed on a red granite slab with a plaque where my grandmother is buried. I want to do my part as a grandson and as an artist for my special grandparents and hopefully this will be cheaper than a regular head stone. To be honest my family has little to no money. My family is hoping it would be better (less expensive) for me to make a bronze statue than to buy a traditional $1,300 dollar memorial. So I'm asking; How expensive is it to cast a bronze statue? I understand that size varies but it's basically going to be quarter scale (15" tall) figurines in solid bronze. Thank you.

• Answer:

  This is a lovely idea, you can definitely do this. You can save money by working with a foundry, many will allow you to create the molds, be involved in the casting process (which is very tedious) & cast it yourself as well as refine it, patina & mount it. It IS a lot of work, but if you are willing to do it all, then foundries will often give you discounts since you are going to be doing that work. I have worked full time in a foundry myself, also went to school & got my Bachelor's, majoring in Sculpture & casted many bronzes & other castings in school. I've also sent out sculptures to other foundries & they did the entire process, so I know all aspects of this process. You may want to check into the foundry I used. Its been a while & I can't remember their info, but I'll research it & post it in the next couple days. They are GREAT to work with & offered a very decent price for my large & cumbersome sculpture. I could estimate about how much your bronze would cost, but it would be a total guess so remember that, my bronzes that I've done in this size cost me about $500 in materials (this is when I did EVERYTHING myself) I recieved estimates on sculptures about this size from $1000 to $3000, but again, this is a total guess. You may also want to look into something permanent & durable for outside sculpture, but is less expensive, they do steel casting, aluminum casting & even concrete casting. There are some absolutely beautiful concrete statues & sculptures that I have seen that would be just as beautiful as a bronze, maybe not quite as permanent but still very nice option. Google concrete castings, cement molds, cast stone sculptures, etc. You will get a lot of info. Even plaster casting (hydro-cal plaster or dental plaster) is an option. Another option is doing a relief sculpture instead, it would be a lot easier, take less time & cost much less. But I think they are just as nice as sculpture in the round. Here's what I mean, these show what you can do as far as subtle (low relief) to very detailed & intricate: http://www.ccartgallery.com/gallery/Sculptures/smheron.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/83/255086016_6d937c4e23.jpg http://christophergowell.com/Relief/relief_10_lg.jpg http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/us.capitol/seventy.jpg http://www.timelessmediaonline.com/images/artprint/sculptureeditions/african-american-original-art-queenofjazz.jpg http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=detail+relief+sculpture&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddetail%2Brelief%2Bsculpture%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26start%3D21&imgurl=56b7fb48512f8c46 I hope you are able to do this, as it really is a nice idea. I'll come back with the info when I find it on that foundry. I found the foundry, their website is: http://www.adonisbronze.com