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A Mother’s Journey - The Beginning |
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The physical part of this mother’s journey began in the studio of David Kocka, who lives down south in Laconia, Indiana. The process of creating a bronze sculpture is huge, time consuming, and very complicated. It requires so many steps that I am unable to easily visualize the process and keep it straight. |
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It begins with the building of a small clay statue from which a large blue Styrofoam structure is created. The blue Styrofoam structure is covered with synthetic clay, which is brushed with several coats of liquid rubber that hardens, and is then brushed with plaster and hardened. This plaster/rubber layer is pulled from the clay, cut into large pieces, and brushed with dark wax, then coated with stucco which is placed in a kiln to harden like cement. The wax inside is melted and replaced with a molten bronze. The pieces are assembled, welded together, sandblasted, and given the desired bronze patina.
Over the last three years, David has been emailing me photos as he progressed in the creation of my Ave Maria. See if you can figure out what stage of the process he’s in as you scroll through the photos. Maybe one day David will help me to write individual captions for each photo. |
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This is David Lind, an artist who assisted David Kocka with the Madonna. |
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The Madonna awaits sandblasting … and me. |
