The Symbiont

Every bronze sculpture is first brought to life by hand, in clay. Some pieces in the collection have taken over 500 hours to sculpt.

A flexible silicone rubber mold is applied over the clay surface, the original clay sculpture is destroyed in this step.

A wax duplicate of the original is created. The artist will manually polish the wax surface each time, to perfectly match the original.

A network of wax rods, known as sprues and a central wax cup, called a pouring basin, are carefully attached.

A ceramic shell is built around the wax sculpture to create the mold. The process is repeated 8 to 12 times to build a durable shell.

The ceramic shell is placed in a high-temperature kiln and heated until the meticulous wax work is irreversibly lost.

Bronze is heated to over 1,100°C until it becomes a glowing, molten liquid and carefully poured into the mold’s central funnel.

The ceramic shell is carefully shattered using specialized tools. The work invested from step 3 onwards is completely lost.

The raw casted bronze is polished into its final form. This stage is repeated for every piece and takes many days or even weeks.

The polished bronze is treated with acids, oxides, pigments, heat, and flame as the artist applies his signature touch.