Rodin preferred the lost-wax casting technique for creating bronze sculptures. This multistep process replicates the artist’s original model in wax-covered clay, and then replaces this wax covering with bronze. The following series of models and molds illustrate eight steps of the lost-wax casting process for Rodin’s small sculpture, Sorrow.
- The process begins with the artist’s final plaster mold.
- The workers at the foundry placed the model into a bed of elastic material and created a hollow mold of its form.
- They pour clay into the mold creating a replica of the original plaster model. They remove a layer of clay producing a gap between the clay core and the mold.
- The clay model is placed back into the mold and wax is poured into the gap. The mold is removed and the artist’s signature, cast number, and foundry seal can be added to this wax-covered clay model.
- An armature of wax tubes is attached to the wax-covered model and a pouring cup that will later receive the molten bronze. This is covered in ceramic.
- Before the casting of the final bronze, the ceramic mold is covered completely by a protective metal coating.
- Hot, molten bronze is poured into the pouring cup causing the wax to melt, and the space around the model previously occupied by the wax to fill with molten bronze. The wax coating flows out via tubes.
- Once the bronze is cooled, the protective metal coating and the tubes are removed leaving only the sculpture. The remains of the clay model are removed from inside the bronze.
