How Are Metal Statues Made?

Sculptors carve stone statues by chiseling away rock with a hammer. Statues are easily shaped from soft materials, but do you know how statues are made from hard metals like iron, copper, and brass? The tradition of making bronze statues dates back to ancient times. This craft developed extensively in India. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin (or brass components). Because this metal casts smoothly and cleanly, beautiful statues can be made. Moreover, it does not rust, so it lasts for years.
The process of casting statues from metal is known as molding. The sculptor first creates a wooden model according to their vision. By pressing this wooden sculpture into wet clay packed inside a square container, a mold of the statue is formed in the clay. Two mold halves are prepared: one for the front and one for the back. When bronze is melted at very high temperatures, it turns into a semi-liquid state. The mold halves are aligned facing each other, and molten bronze is poured through an opening. The semi-liquid bronze fills the hollow statue cavity inside the clay and rapidly cools into a solid metal statue. In this way, multiple statues can be produced from a single wooden prototype.