The lost wax casting technique is commonly used to reproduce bronze sculptures but is often underestimated in it’s complexity and labour intensive nature.
The lost wax process is not a new technique and has been used for thousand of years, dating back to the Egyptians who used it produce there jewellery.
The technique involves creating a wax duplicate of the original sculpture which is then encased in a ceramic shell. The shell is then baked, melting the wax and creating a void in the image of the sculpture. The void is then filled with liquid bronze and then the ceramic shell is removed exposing the bronze sculpture.
This technique is used by sculpture Tim Cotterill, aka Frogman, who demonstrates the process very well in the following video.