"Tolt" in bronze

**ArtsyLynda** · #1 06-02-2011, 07:47 PM

"Tolt" is finished in bronze and mounted on its walnut base. It will arrive at its owner's home tomorrow, yay!

I'm very happy with this buckskin patina - I prefer translucent patinas, and this one, like most of my others, shows the glitter of the bronze through it, so it has the same metallic sheen as a live horse's coat (well, many horses' coats anyway). "Tolt" is 1/4 life-size of a 13 hand Icelandic mare and her 5'2" owner.

This piece weighs over 65 lbs, so it was too much trouble to haul it across the yard from the studio to the house, then down to the basement where my photo setup is. These pics were taken on one of my work tables with a piece of foam core as the background, but they still look okay, just not as fancy as usual, LOL.

Cross-posted to the Animal and Wildlife Art forum.

saje · #2 06-02-2011, 08:21 PM

geezzz, most excellent

**ArtsyLynda** · #3 06-02-2011, 08:33 PM

Thanks!

tc93 · #4 06-02-2011, 11:47 PM

Lovely!

**ArtsyLynda** · #5 06-03-2011, 07:32 AM

The sculpture in clay was 26" long, 22 1/2" high 6" wide at the rider's feet, while the horse is 31/2" wide. With the base, I think it's 28" long x 25" high x 5" wide, but honestly, I forgot to measure it when I got it. It was so difficult to maneuver because of its weight and size, we just got it mounted, took these quick photos and boxed it back up so it could be shipped. Not the way I normally work, but I also don't usually have to deal with two injured shoulders and a 65 lb. bronze! LOL

**sculpturedolls** · #6 06-03-2011, 12:39 PM

Beautiful! Such a gorgeous piece, I'm excited for the owner to get it. They are going to love it! That patina is so rich and lustrous. I almost want to try out my work there one day. Well, I can at at least get a quote and see comparison costs. I like how smoothly the transition is from the dark hooves up the leg to the buckskin patina.

Did they make a wooden box to send? Just curious how much it cost to send a large piece like that if you don't mind sharing.

Love to see finished works that come out so beautifully!

**ArtsyLynda** · #7 06-03-2011, 01:09 PM

They reused the cardboard box that was made by the shippers here to send the clay to the foundry. It had originally been attached to a skid - I've started using a much more expensive way to ship that keeps the shippers from tossing my raw clays around, keeps the boxes off the conveyor belts so they can't fall, etc. UPS has a subsidiary company that does freight shipping, so if you attach your box to a skid, it will ship that way. It cost me $200 to ship the bronze to my customer from here, and that was regular UPS, not this special shipping I'm having done for my clays. That cost also involved reusing that original box and its foam in place packing from the foundry, but inserting that box (which was showing wear from its two cross-country trips) into another box. It didn't need to go on a skid once it was bronze, BTW. Sending the maquette to the enlarger with a skid attached to the box, and sending it overnight air (Dayton OH to Portland OR) was close to $400 but that includes the shipping company I use (The Packaging Store - it's a chain, so you may have one near you) packing the piece (I have them pack nearly all my pieces - that makes it easier to collect insurance if there's a problem - after fighting with UPS/FedEx insurance for several claims, I figure it's worth the cost to have the store pack things for me.).

I've seen figurative work done by my foundry and it's consistently gorgeous. Beautiful patinas, every time. They don't only do translucent patinas, but for my horses, that's what I want. If you want their contact info, e me privately.

Glad you like it! My customer should get it to day. I sure hope she's happy with it!

SherChristopher · #8 06-03-2011, 01:43 PM

The colours are gorgeous and I'm sure the photos don't do it justice - it must look even more amazing in real life.

**ArtsyLynda** · #9 06-03-2011, 01:49 PM

Yeah, the colors are richer than shown here. We had to do "primitive" photography using just the studio fluorescent lights and daylight coming through my two windows rather than using the daylight-spectrum photo floods I use in my photo setup. It was just too heavy to haul down to the basement to take pics of it! Glad you like it!

**sculpturedolls** · #10 06-03-2011, 04:23 PM

Skids are a good thing to keep in mind too. Thanks for explaining all that. The Packaging Store chain is a local one here too that I looked for when we spoke on it before. So glad you mentioned it as I needed something like that for shipping. He told me he could ship even ceramics successfully, the main thing being to double box it.

Once I get to point on current projects where I need a quote for bronze I'll email ya with the contact name. I think I can figure out where it is in Oregon as it was in the upper right corner (Valley Bronze?). I know there's another one in Oregon too and I had a quote from them before but not the one you are using. I love how you can trust them to do such a good job. With the ones I use, I have to do inspecting of the bronze (called a metal check) and often find pits that need filling or other minor details that I want corrected but it sure would be nice to have a foundry that does high quality work without needing checked.

I'm going to try out this one in Southern Ca. but it's so difficult with them because the owner speaks poor broken English. Don't think I'm going to deal with the difficult communication because sculpture is so important and it stresses me to explain things and not know if it's being understood. If I were in town it would be just fine because hand gestures work great!

I can tell that your patina is gorgeous even from these photos. I know it glows with beauty.

**ArtsyLynda** · #11 06-03-2011, 04:33 PM

Is Valley Bronze still in business? Or was it Joseph Bronze that closed? There were five foundries in that tiny part of Oregon, and three of them closed, including a big one - can't remember which one. I use Parks Bronze in Enterprise. They've been slammed with work since those other foundries closed.

I like Monterey Bronze (sp?) in Monterey CA if you want gorgeous patinas and a foundry in CA - I know it's a drive if you're in SoCal, but they speak English there just fine (as they do at Parks) and they do beautiful work. They do Loet Vanderveen's work (look him up - we have several of his bronzes).

I've never found one pit on my bronzes since I started using Parks. They know I'm demanding and they come up to my expectations nearly all the time. It's pretty rare that I have a complaint, and then it's usually a detail like the shape of a bit or something like that that requires expertise they might not have, and perhaps they just missed seeing how I had it in the reference material I sent them. Steve Parks, who owns the foundry, is a sculptor himself and does beautiful work. We bought one of his eagle bronzes - that was when we met him. His style is similar enough to mine that I know any of my work that might need repair will be done so only I can see where the repair was done (I've only had one piece that needed that kind of work, and it looks great).

If you look at the pieces on my website - or even in the bar of photos under my posts - you should be able to see how beautiful their patinas are. All of the bronzes shown in my siggy bar (not the white one, that's cold cast porcelain) were cast at Parks.

They do a lot of figurative work too - they'll do whatever you want them to, from realistic patinas to wildly colored fantasy ones, and if you don't like it, they'll change it. They've done that for me several times. Nice folks up there.

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