BRONZE!! Part One: HOT & MESSY!!

Before going to Tesuque Glassworks, the WINs (Wandering Individuals Network - a singles RVing group) visited Shidoni Bronze Foundry and Gallery. "Shidoni" is a greeting to a friend in Navajo. Both businesses share a common entrance road and are located in the village of Tesuque (te-soo-ke), five miles north of Santa Fe. 

Trish, our WIN New Mexico activities planner and coordinator extraordinary, scheduled our trip on a Saturday, a day that Shidoni was doing bronze pourings. We were in for quite a treat for our $5 admission fee. We pretty much had total access to the foundry plus the indoor and outdoor art galleries - all self guided. 

I found the process of creating such beautiful works of art to be fascinating. Artist would create or sculpt art subjects in usually either wood or clay and then a ceramic mold would be created for the 2,000 degree molten bronze to be poured into. This part of the process was both hot and messy... 

"H-O-T", hot!!

"M-E-S-S-Y", messy!!

First the MESSY part of the process...

The two shots above are favorite photos of mine.

They are "ART" to me.

A "larger than life" mold!!

Then the HOT part of the process...

Leftover molten bronze is poured back into the pot!!

WOW!!

Gives one a greater appreciation of bronze sculpture.

Now on to the finished works of art!!