Fresh Shop: Small Bronzes

Etsy.com handmade and vintage goods
danielfleming1

Story by danielfleming1

Published on Aug 09, 2012 in Read

Every day, our community grows in unexpected and delightful ways. For our Fresh Shops series, sellers who have been on Etsy for a mere handful of months or are awaiting their first sale introduce themselves. Here’s a warm welcome to all our newbies!

My name is Dan Fleming, and I  live and work in Arroyo Grande, California. My shop is Small Bronzes. I went to school for business but always knew that was a bad idea. During school, I began to draw and paint a bit. I loved it and tried to learn from looking at other artists’ work. The idea of making a living as an artist was inconceivable to me, but I enjoyed the process and was usually surprised with the finished piece. Once I started to take my painting more seriously, I focused on the human form.

Sculpture had always interested me. One day, I was watching This Old House when they showed a small foundry making bronze doorknobs using the lost wax method and a centrifugal casting machine. With the machine, they could create a dozen or so doorknobs at once. I found the idea of melting metal and making something that would outlast me very appealing — I’ve always loved anything small made in metal.  Everything they used to make those doorknobs seemed like things that I could build myself. I thought I could make little affordable bronze figures and mass-produce them on a small scale.

I sculpt the originals out of wax. I don’t use any reference materials, but I always keep the skeleton in mind, bending the figures until I find a pose that feels good. Wax is difficult to work with, but one benefit is that once I find a good pose, I can use my soldering iron to melt the pieces back together and  fine tune it. I then attach it to the sprue and hope that nothing goes wrong. (I lost more than a few in the beginning, but have gotten a bit better at the process.) Once I have the original, I make a rubber mold and create duplicates to sell.

I made almost all of my equipment myself. The centrifugal casting machine was made from a treadmill motor attached to a repurposed potter’s wheel set in a metal garbage can with a cut-out pouring area. My burnout oven is made from a large rag disposal barrel. My vacuum table is constructed from plywood and a sheet of rubber with a large heavy gauge aluminum cooking pot drilled with holes for the vacuum gauge and the vacuum pump, and a hole at the top covered with a half inch piece of Plexiglas  for a viewing window.

I have been casting my sculptures for six months or so. My equipment is working very well, but I have a number of improvements to make to increase my production capabilities and efficiency. I am trying to make a living off of my art. It is difficult, but I have been getting a nice response. I am having a good time struggling along.

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3 Featured Comments

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  • wheatleypaperworks

    M Wheatley from wheatleypaperworks says: Featured

    What intrigues me most about this artist is that he is creating the artifacts of our time. The stuff if our lives is so ephemeral-it will be gone in some cases before we are. I suspect that the historians of the future will look back and describe this time as a dark ages because there will be little trace of ourselves or our things. It's the potters and metal workers who are writing the books...I have to ask though, "who teaches themselves how to cast bronze?!" All the best.

    289 days ago

  • ProfessorTiny

    Susan Sanford from ProfessorTiny says: Featured

    Wow! This is wonderful seriously playful. 6 months, you say? Jaw drops. The handmade equipment is wonderfully ingenious, a little of the spirit of the Shakers there.

    289 days ago

  • auntjanecan

    Jane Priser from JanePriserArts says: Featured

    Dan, your work is wonderful! I find it amazing that you taught yourself to cast in bronze and then created all your equipment! When I was studying sculpture, my teacher would say, "An artist that casts his own bronzes is a true sculptor!"

    289 days ago

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