Mary MacKillop Bust available in cold cast bronze

Mary MacKillop Cold Cast Bronze. 2012

I have been wanting to post about the cold cast bronze and the bronze I am now producing to sell as  limited edition.
The dimensions are 83cm x 60cm x 52cm.

As a number of Australian Catholic Schools have approached me for a sculpture of Mary MacKillop that they could afford to buy, last year , after I finished the large bronze for outside the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in North Sydney, I began a new sculpture for this purpose.

I finished it in late 2011 and had a " Dragon Skin" mould made of the clay sculpture with a mother mould of fibreglass to house the silicone mould.

I was very aware the costs needed to be such that a school could afford to purchase  a sculpture of our first Australian Saint.The portrait needed to be of a sensitive, kind and loving woman and I have endeavored to portray her as I believe she was.

I have employed a partnership of artisan mould makers to do the work and we looked at various ways of making a statue .

We first thought of making it in cement with a ground  marble aggregate and also looked into a product called "Duo Matrix Neo" but ended up doing some work with Epoxy Resin and incorporating fine bronze powder in the first few layers. It is then backed up with fibreglass layers and the inner layer  is filled with marble aggregate mixed with epoxy resin. This gives it a solid interior.

The beauty of the bronze powder is then bought out by rubbing the exterior with '0000' steel wool and the cast can be treated the same as bronze and a classic patina can be applied to it with similar results as a hot cast bronze.Wax is then applied to buff the surface for protection.

The first school to ask for a sculpture was given the first option to buy one and it has been delivered to Mount Isa in Queensland, the school being St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School in far North Queensland.
They are going to give it pride of place in a garden setting.

The second school is in Sunshine, Victoria and their sculpture is going ahead and should be ready within a few weeks time.

I am also casting this bust as a bronze and one is being poured at a foundry for a Parish church in Canberra, Act as a memorial bronze.

If any schools churches or mother houses are interested in a cast in Bronze or the much less expensive version of cold cast bronze, please contact me by email at : jurol@bigpond.net.au  or phone: 61 8 825102040.