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  A hand-carved wooden kayak is shown submerged in a silicone rubber liquid, and surrounded by a  constructed wooden mold box.

Once the silicone rubber hardens, the wooden mold box is deconstructed allowing better access to the solid silicone rubber mold for 

easier removal of the original.

The original kayak is removed from the silicone rubber mold.  This process can result in significant damage to more complex original sculptures, so great care is required.

Creating this kayak mold was about as easy 

as it gets because of the kayak's simple shape and minimal complexity.  This process took about 3 hours, and the cost of materials including the silicone rubber was about $200.

Yep, switched to a more complex piece to confuse you.  This is the Day Hiker mold, which contains a curing cold cast bronze figure consisting of bronze powder and liquid resin.

Demolding the Day Hiker cold cast bronze.  Building this mold was much more complex than the kayak mold.  In fact, I broke the original sculpture when removing  it from the mold.  

The Day Hiker fresh out of the mold.  

Hot cast bronze and cold cast bronze are both dull until polished.  They can look nearly identical once polished and painted or patinaed.  Hot cast bronze sculptures are typically 3/16" thick metal and hollow.  Cold cast bronze sculptures are typically solid and have a bronze powder exterior bonded to the solid resin core.  

The fun part, finishing the cold cast bronze.  

She could have remained a natural-looking bronze, but I wanted a more eye-catching

 look which included adding some iridescent paint to the bronze finish.  The casting process including clean-up of any imperfections,  polishing, painting, and finishing took about 8 hours for this 8-inch tall figure.   

Here is the Day Hiker finished in a natural bronze appearance.  Cold cast bronze is becoming a preferred option for many customers, especially for indoor art.  In fact some foundries are also cold casting.  Cold cast bronze sculptures can last indefinitely, are easily and inexpensively repaired, and typically cost less than one-half of the price.