Play Bow

This is available in two patinas, Champagne and Chocolate.

Color may vary from the images, as the application of a patina is a manual and artistic process.

The inspiration:

This happy-go-lucky Cocker Spaniel had this funny little habit of rubbing his ears on the floor while he was getting tailbone rubs. After dinner he would crawl up onto Karen’s lap and get more ear rubs. He really liked the tummy rubs Terrence would give him but he went nuts whenever we tried to run Terrence’s remote-controlled “Stewart Little” car or electric Christmas Train. He positioned himself just like he sits now, whenever we ate popcorn, ready to jump for anything we would throw his way.

I used my Cocker Spaniel as a reference, to ensure that the little details were true. As you can imagine if you have a little energetic dog, it took a lot of treats to get him to sit still for all of the times I needed to examine him, especially his nose.

Below is a brief overview of the process I used to make them:

This is a hand-made item, sculpted in clay by Terrence and individually cast in bronze by a small foundry in California. Each casting undergoes hours of labor to mold, cast, clean, and patina. Terrence oversees the process and inspects and modifies each piece as needed to achieve the final result, a truly one-of-a-kind bronze sculpture.

I started by making the initial sculpture using Chavant oil-based clay. The great feature of this type of clay is that it always stays malleable, it never dries out, so it can be worked over a long period of time.

A mold is built upon the clay. This is the mother mold that is used to create multiple wax copies. The wax copies are used in the lost wax casting method, the age-old method of casting bronze.

The bronze casting must then go through several labor-intensive steps.  It must be assembled, cleaned up, and all imperfections due to the casting process are removed.

The final step is applying the patina. A patina is not paint. It is the actual surface of the metal whose color has been chemically altered. A common example of a patina is the normal rust that forms on the surface of iron, the chemical agent in this case being water. When applying a patina to bronze, various chemicals are used to achieve specific colors that are much more pleasing, as well as to create designs. The bronze is first heated with a blow torch in order to accelerate the reaction. Chemicals are sprayed or brushed on to the heated metal in layers, creating patterns and depths of color that are very beautiful and natural looking.