What is Casting, Exactly? Why do we need it?

The Rocking-Horse Winner. Made in wax and too soft to last.

Why are we Talking about Casting?

I model my original sculptures in wax. I do that because it flows freely and has the right balance of sticking to itself without being too sticky to handle; its mobility allows me the freedom to work fluidly and create the shapes that I need to. After having modelled the original sculpture, that same mobility becomes a drawback because it remains too soft to be able to show and sell in that form.

Can’t you bake it?

Visual art education tends to centre around two-dimensional work, where it is usual to let paint dry so that it becomes available to present, but three-dimensional modelling is not quite like that. People’s exposure to making in three-dimensions has often been limited to clay, and so they naturally expect that other materials will dry or go through some baking process to harden. Obviously the action of heat on wax would cause it to soften further, rather than to solidify.

Why not use Clay then?

Clay is less useful to me because I need an armature, or a wire framework, to support my sculptures with little thin legs, (see previous blog post.) A clay object containing an armature can’t be fired because clay contracts as it dries, causing it to crack off. Also, I need to be free to use a loose modelling style, and this creates air pockets in the clay object, which would cause it to explode in the kiln. So I use wax, which is a beautiful material to work with, but which remains soft. This means that we are left with an object which is not durable enough be presented as it is and needs to go through a further transformative process. This means casting.

Casting Explained

Casting involves two processes; first making a mould and secondly taking a cast from that. In its simplest form this can be imagined as similar to making a jelly. Runny jelly is poured into the jelly mould container, which then sets and produces a cast of the mould shape. Many people have also cast “plaster of Paris” statues of cartoon characters at some point in their youth . My casting process is just a very much more complex version of this.

That sounds like a lot of extra work…

The drawback of having a making process that involves casting is that the process is time-consuming, expensive, and requires a lot of expertise; the great benefit is that, once you have a mould you can cast an edition. This means that, just as with prints, the same sculpture can be available to more than one owner. This is especially helpful given that I work in series, and I like to see all of them together. If one person loves one of the sculptures and buys one of the editions, the series can still be shown without any alteration to its presentation. More people who love the sculpture can each have one of them. Currently I am casting into very limited editions of 24, using a beautiful British eco-resin – but more about that in my next blog in two weeks’ time.