A few words about reining horse gifts and bronze reining horse sculptures.

Reining horse bronze horse sculpture - Lady Reiner

I love sculpting a reining horse in action. They are so amazing and athlethic to ride.
I have been showing reining horses for over 20 years, and yet I still learn more about the balance and movement of a reining horse when I sculpt them.
The best reining horses and riders operate together to the point that the curve of the spine and roll of the pelvis of both horse and rider match in a good sliding stop.
The movement of the reining horse and rider are synchronized to the point that if I see the form in which the rider sits the sliding stop, I can have a pretty darn accurate idea of how hard that rider's horse will be stopping.This also works the other way around. If I can observe the form and body of the

Reining horse bronze horse sculpture and door knocker horse, I know what the matching form of the rider must be in order for the horse to slide stop with that intensity
I really enjoyed spending time with this beautiful champion reining horse as I sculpted his likeness for this bronze reining horse door knocker. The slide plate horse shoe that is a part of this door knocker is a direct bronze copy of one of this wonderful horse's horse shoes.

This bronze reining horse door knocker makes a wonderful gift for the reining horse rider in your life.

See more of my bronze horse sculptures at:
www.corpany.com

Creating a custom bronze horse sculpture. The process of turning a clay sculpture into a bronze casting.

Bronze Horse Sculptures 

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Creating a Custom Bronze Horse Sculpture: 

I recently gave a presentation at the Silver State Select Horse Expo in Reno, Nevada 
teaching about how a bronze sculpture is made.  

The process of creating a finished bronze horse sculpture from a clay model is a 

complex one involving many steps, time and many hands working on the sculpture 

through the different parts of the process. 

This bronze horse sculpture of a running thoroughbred stallion was first modeled 

in clay. In the photo we can see a supporting pipe going up into the horse's belly. 

It is part of the armature that supports the clay.

Next, the clay version of the bronze horse is 

coated with liquid rubber & the rubber is 

allowed to set up.Subsequent layers of rubber 

are added after each coat dries.  

After the third coat of rubber, aluminum shims 

are added to allow the mold to be opened and 

the clay horse sculpture removed from the 

finished rubber mold.

Mesh fabric is embedded in the rubber after the fourth 

coat of rubber to give the mold strength, then more 

coats of rubber are added to finish the rubber part of 

the mold over the horse sculpture. 

Paper shims are added to divide the pieces of the 

fiberglass Mother Mold. The fiberglass "mother mold" 

is then built around the rubber mold

The finished mold is then cut apart, removed from the 

clay model and reassembled. 

Wax is then poured into the mold and the hollow wax 

sculpture is cut into pieces to allow it to make a good 

casting. 

A bronze sculpture must be hollow in order for the 

bronze to cast well.  The walls of the wax piece must 

be relatively thin, 1/4 inch or less.  In bronze casting, 

a thin bronze is a good bronze because there will be 

less shrinkage or distortion in the sculpture.  A good 

bronze sculpture casting that is thin reproduces the

fine details of the artists original work without distortion. 

The wax pieces are then attached to a wax cup with 

wax "straws" or sprews.
The horse sculpture head shown is a hollow wax copy 

of the original clay model which has been attached to a 

wax cup with "sprews" or "gates" which are solid wax straws. 

The wax is then coated in slurry and covered 

with sand.The first layers of sand are a fine grit that picks 

up all of the detail of the sculpture, even down to the

artists fingerprints that were left on the piece. Then the 

later layers are a coarse sand to add strength to the shell.

Successive layers of slurry and sand begin to build a 

ceramic or "rock" shell around the wax.

Next comes the step that the lost wax bronze casting 

process is named for.

The "rock" or ceramic shell that coats the wax sculpture 

is then placed in a burnout furnace where the wax is flash

melted out and the shell is heated to about 1800 degrees.

At the same time, bronze ingots are heated in the crucible 

furnace until they are liquid and also about 1800 degrees. 

The shell is then pulled out of the burnout furnace and 

placed in a sand filled cart which is wheeled under the 

crucible where bronze has been heated until it is molten. 

The next step in the lost wax bronze casting process.

Molten liquid bronze is then poured into the red hot

ceramic shell. 

The ceramic shell filled with molten bronze is then 

set aside to cool.  
When it has cooled and the metal is once again 

solid, the shell is broken off to reveal the bronze

sculpture.

The raw bronze pieces are then sandblasted to 

clean them, and any parts that were cut off to 

cause the piece to cast better are welded back on. 

The welds on the bronze sculpture are ground 

down and then re-textured in a process called 

"metal chasing". A final sandblast and check are 

then done on the bronze sculpture to prepare it for 

the patina or color.
The raw bronze horse sculpture is sandblasted and 

ready for patina. A bronze sculpture, if left in this raw

state will naturally go darker and darker, eventually 

becoming nearly black, or if exposed to moisture, 

green, due to the copper content of the bronze metal. 

The finished bronze horse sculpture after patina 

(color) is then applied by the use of chemicals and 

heat processes to change the color of the metal, 

The finish is then sealed with a coat of hot wax, and 

the piece is mounted on a beautiful walnut wood base.

See more bronze horse sculptures by Kim Corpany

at www.corpany.com