buying bronze?

Question

I am doing research for a proposal regarding a bronze sculpture of a bear coming out of a cave. I have no idea how much bronze is. Does anyone know where I can find out as much information as possible in relation to different prices around the US? I don't know how much bronze I would need for my sculpture either. It would be about 8 feet tall and 7 feet wide. Any ideas anyone?

Answer 1

this is going to cost you a serious chunk of money. Silicon bronze (which is the preferred alloy for most sculptors) is currently close to $5 per pound. Prices will vary somewhat, but not that much. Mostly the price will be affected by the amount you buy. One source you can ask is atlas metal. Though as obviously shipping is going to expensive due to the weight, you are probably going to be best off if you can find a local art foundry (yellow pages) which is willing to sell you bronze. Some (but not all) will do that occasionally.
For a sculpture that size I don't have the experience to figure out how many pounds it's going to be, but a very rough guess would be maybe 500 pounds of bronze. Contact a local art foundry for a better estimate. While you are on the phone to them, also ask them how much the price of all the work would be.
There will be a lot of work to do with making the wax of the statue, casting it in pieces and then welding the pieces together and finishing it with a patina. It also will depend a lot who you get as the artist and what his/her charges are going to be. In addition to the metal there will be substantial material cost for the material the original sculpture is done in. Mold material to make a mold of it. Wax to make the wax version of it, material you put the wax in in order to burn it out. Not to forget grinding disks for cleaning metal off and welding rod to put pieces together and similar odds and ends. You are looking for at least the same amount of additional material cost than the bronze is.
So another very rough guess is that your bear will set you back at least $5 000 for material. And if you can't do everything yourself you will be out whatever labor charges there are in addition.
Depends what you want it for. Consider fiberglass as an alternative if it has to be weather resistant. If it doesn't and doesn't get moved around think about having a metal armature with paper mache and plaster on top.
Even if you use aluminum instead of bronze, the price is going to drop down dramatically. Aluminum weighs a third of bronze for the same volume. It costs about half of it. So the money needed in material is about 1/6 of the cost for bronze. Think polar bear....
One drawback of aluminum is, however, that putting a nice patina on it will be much more difficult.

Answer 2

The long first answer assumes you are buying this and are not the artist. If you are the artist and have never done foundry work, you need to get a modern sculpture book which details the steps (I ran into one in the library). But far more practically, you need to talk to a foundry about the costs of the steps and what they can do for you. If you have a full size model, it is one thing. If you have a small model, then someone has to enlarge it and make the wax. Big statues, and this one is large, are done in sections and welded/braised together, ground and finished and patinaeded. Commonly the artist touches up the wax and the final patinna if they know how and nothing else. You have got to find a foundry that can handle something this big (many can't/won't go bigger than a human bust.)

Answer 3

look up elden tafft studio in lawrence kansas, the good dr. knows much on this matter.