Lost wax casting is an ancient process that has changed little in thousands of years. Even though it is at least 4000 years old modern sculptors still employ this very basic yet ingenious technique.

Bronze is historically an alloy of mostly copper and smaller amounts of tin or lead. However, today modern alloys have added silicon for ease in casting, and lead is no longer used. To make a sculpture the sculptor must first sculpt a model in a suitable material such as wax, wood or clay.

For The Rower the model was made as a wax version prior to bronze casting. Mold making is the next step in turning a wax sculpture into bronze. The wax model is encased in a mold that will withstand the heat of 2000F bronze. This is achieved by dipping the model repeatedly in a liquid coloidal silica bath of ceramic slurry. This creates an outer layer that coats the entire surface of the sculpture and a thick hard ceramic shell.

The ceramic shell mold with the wax sculpture inside is then heated to melt the wax out of the mold. This creates an open void where the sculpture once existed inside the ceramic shell. Bronze is then heated to 2000 degrees F and poured into the mold. What once was wax is now an exact copy in bronze.