Another Masterpiece Is Being Created

The monastery is delighted to show a progression slideshow about the making of the the next bronze silpis sculpture. It's quite an amazing process, so complex and requiring great skills.

Here is a short recap of the project:
The series of bronzes give tribute and honor to the art and craftsmanship of building Iraivan Temple by hand out of hard granite. Five out of 8 pieces have been completed and the next will soon be crated for the journey to Kauai.

This slideshow presents the sixth of the masterpieces carved by Holly Young, showing some of its evolution. Once Holly has done her wax sculpting, she makes molds and ships them to Loveland, Colorado, where the finest of America's bronze craftsmen have assembled a special community of gifted experts.

A copy of her work is made in wax, then a special mold for the molten metal is made, several actually. These molds are cast with 2,000-degree metal, and once cooled welded back together into a single piece. Yes, the entire original wax is broken apart, duplicated, cast and put back together by the skilled men and women in Loveland.

A. Manivelu\

s piece depicting the overview of the completed Temple Builders\' Memorial in all its glory. You will notice the incoming bronze has changed from our concept of one silpi lifting a stone, into a larger work showing two silpis with iron bars moving a large stone.'

The wax mold of the two silpis. Even the beginning stages must be perfect. Such detail.

Kathy seen here fitting up wax to make the stone.

Tying it all together and working on the texture.

Building shell on wax before casting

Scraping the crucible to remove slag before pouring metal.

Metal temp before pour (in Fahrenheit.)

Removing hot shell from kiln. They move really fast as insulated kevlar gloves are flaming. Wax has been burned out (lost wax casting).

Placing hot shell in sand to stabilize before pouring. The sand will dissipate the heat.

Filling the transfer crucible

And the pour

After the molds are broken off, the pieces are revealed. Ready to be welded back together by Bobby Page.

Bobby has to put the puzzle together in his shop. Two separate hoists are needed to get them together

Lifting on to the welding table

Bobby writes: Welding the legs on. The shoulders have to be tack welded to get attitude correct then the legs are welded. The bodies are then cut apart for further welding and chasing. There is still quite a bit of work after this, so more photos coming in the days ahead.

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