The stages of creating a sculpture

The best way to start collecting art sculptures is to learn how sculptors create their works. Sculpting requires mastering all the stages of making a sculpture. These steps differ considerably depending on the type of material used, such as bronze, steel, wood, resin, etc. Below you will find a small glossary to guide you:

Assembling: Assembling various objects together to form a unique sculpture whose value will exceed the aesthetic value of the separate elements.

Modelling: The process of shaping materials, either by adding or removing material.

Moulding: Making a mould to take the impression of a modelled work or a living model and making one or more plaster or wax casts from this mould.

Carving: A technique that involves cutting or scraping away from a bloc of material to give it a specific shape. There are two carving techniques: - Direct carving, without using a preliminary sketch or a model. - Indirect carving with the help of a pointing machine, which duplicates the model faithfully based on exact measurements.

Casting: Technique that involves all the operations occurring before and after casting molten metals in a mould.

Ronde-bosse: A technique that produces three-dimensional sculptures that are not attached to a background but rest on a base.