Wax carving for the foundry: cast your sculpture in bronze
- Course Code: VU931
- Dates: 27/07/24 - 04/08/24
- Time: 10:30 - 16:30
- Taught: Sat-Sun, Daytime
- Duration: 4 sessions (over 2 weeks)
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Valerie Merlo
Course Code: VU931
Duration: 4 sessions (over 2 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
You will be making a small wax sculpture. This course does not cover casting at the City Lit, your sculpture will be sent away to the foundry for casting and will return to you as a finished bronze sculpture.
The bronze casting will be covered in the course fee, unless you have had a casting made by the Castle Arts Foundry before, either on this course or outside of the course. If this is the case you will need to contact the foundry to get a quote for your casting and pay them separately.
What will we cover?
You will look at ways of making a figurative or abstract sculpture in wax. You will look at ways of working with wax and methods of making different textures.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Work from the figure or your own ideas for form.
- Manipulate and model with wax.
- Create a small sculpture suitable for bronze casting.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is suitable for all ability levels.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions to support demonstrations, hand-outs and for health and safety information. You will be invited to take part in group discussion. You should be able to use numbers and be able to do simple measurements and calculations.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Through demonstration, practical and discussion you will be taught as a group and helped individually as required. Handouts will accompany demonstrations.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
The bronze casting will be covered in the course fee, unless you have had a casting made by the Castle Arts Foundry before, either on this course or outside of the course. If this is the case you will need to contact the foundry to get a quote for your casting and pay them separately.
You must wear flat sturdy shoes with a closed toe. Please also wear old working clothes that you do not mind getting messy or bring overalls.
We also recommend that you bring a sketchbook/notebook and pencils to sketch and make notes. A camera is also useful to photograph your work.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
The City Lit sculpture department offers a wide range of exciting courses that will allow you to progress from beginner to advanced and learn a range of techniques. After this course you may wish to join a course in a material or process you have tried before to develop your skills further, or try something completely different. We offer courses in prop making, metal, clay, wax, carving in stone and wood, mould making and casting in Jesmonite, or pewter and much more! You may wish to progress onto the year-long City Lit Sculpture course VU841, which helps you to build your own individual sculpture practice.
We are constantly adding new courses. Please ask your tutor for advice or browse the City Lit website for inspiration. It is also possible to contact our visual arts team by emailing visualarts@citylit.ac.uk, or calling 0203 880 2415 Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm.
Valerie Merlo is a sculptor, who specialises in bronze casting. She has an MA in sculpture from the Royal College of Art and teaches at City Lit alongside her art practice. She has a strong interest in drawing, which she uses when working towards her sculpture, which she makes from her studio at ASC studios. Valerie is a very experienced tutor whose personal approach to sculpture feeds into her teaching, by encouraging students to explore the creative boundary between drawing and sculpture. Her focus is on supporting students to develop individual projects from direct observation of the figure, their imagination, exploring and experimenting with materials and from research into the work of other artists; both contemporary and historical art. javascript:WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new WebForm_PostBackOptions("ctl00$ctl00$SystemContentPane$ContentPlaceHolderWorkflowActions$LinkButtonFormSubmitted", "", true, "", "", false, true))
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.