before the clay model is ready for bronze casting. And

the amount of human effort, blood, sweat, and sacrifice

which follows is beyond definition. Still it's difficult to

see anyone paying for a sculpture based on parts and

labor. If this were the case only the mega, mega rich would

own sculptures.

And while it's true sculptures of size can range from

ten thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars,

the fact is, the artists and foundries dedicated to fine art

sculpting are doing it more for the love and need to create

art than for the marginal profits involved.

After the bronze sculpture has been cast, put back

together, and sanded down with blowtorches, it's ready to

leave the foundry and go to the Patination studio.

Patination is the long way of saying patinas, which are the

chemical agents used to color bronze sculptures.

There are two forms of Patination, there is Hot

Patina and there is Cold Patina. Some artists devote their

entire career to the art of Patination. It is through the

patina that a sculpture is given it's definition, color,

and life. If the patina artist is a different one than the

originator of the sculpture, they are also responsible for

fulfilling the vision of the artist who struggled against

desperate odds and an exhausting process to see the

sculpture come into existence.

When it comes to selecting the type of patina to be

used it's hard to say how or why an artist may choose hot

patinas or cold patinas. Hot patinas are acid based chemical

compounds, which become activated by the heat from

blowtorches. When the compounds are active they release

different colors, which are then used to color the sculpture.

This is a very dicey process because not always is the

reaction between the bronze and the patina happening right