What is bronze?
Bronze is a metal alloy produced by blending copper and tin in various amounts, depending on the application. Additional elements such as manganese, lead, and phosphorous are added to create bronze with specific properties. Bronze is found in bells, statuary, bearings, gears, valves, pipes, and other plumbing fittings, and it is a sturdy, durable metal when well cared for. Humans have been working with bronze for over 3,000 years in various parts of the world, using it for weapons, coins, tableware, and an assortment of other household purposes. Bronze is made by smelting copper and tin together. When bronze is cast for use in statues, it contains between two and 20% tin, while bells use a higher percentage of tin: 15-20%. Additives are included when the bronze needs to be more workable, harder, or easier to cast. For example, phosphorous is added to harden bronze for use in tubing and various machine parts, while lead is included to make bronze take more readily to casting. Bronze is
One of the comments that I have commonly heard is goes something like this, Wow, I really like this but it is way too expensive, it costs as much as my car. How do I respond? What do I say to this frugal consumer? The first thing I usually do is to say you are right, bronze is expensive. The next thing I do, if my audience seems receptive, is to begin the process of explaining why bronzes are always priced so high. Let me try to describe this process here. The bronze that a consumer sees is the final product of many separate, expensive and time consuming steps. The first step is the creation of the original artwork. The Original Artwork After coming up with an idea of what I am interested in doing I make several rough sketches of what I would like the final product to look like. If my idea involves an actual living or extinct animal I spend some time here doing research. When creating the piece Centaur Warrior, I photographed and video taped horses standing, walking and running. I rese
Clewell worked in bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin that has been used for thousands of years. In the prehistoric period known as the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BC), societies first began to use advanced metalworking techniques by melting copper and tin together. The molten metal alloy was then cast into many different kinds of artifacts, ranging from sword blades to decorative trinkets. It was these prehistoric artifacts that inspired Clewell.
