"Nanning 374: Spirit of the Friesian" Life-size Bronze

Yup, that's a picture of me with the enlargement of this sculpture. When he's cast, he'll be 8' high by 9' long, full life-size for a 17 hand horse (he's slightly larger in these pics due to the 3% shrinkage of bronze). The maquette (small version) was digitally enlarged, which means a computer scanned the original sculpture, a computer program enlarged it, and then a robotic arm such as those used in the automotive industry cut the horse's parts out of the big blue Styrofoam blocks used for insulating office buildings. Once the Styrofoam pieces were cut out, I worked on them to perfect the details while the staff painted melted clay on the pieces. When each piece was as perfect as possible, the parts were put together with dowel rods holding them until the glue dried. The horse's body was cut out in two halves (front and back as shown), the head and neck were cut out separately, and the legs and tail were all split lengthwise within the computer program, then cut out on a flatbed router. The first three pics show the head and neck being cut out with the robotic arm and the legs and tail on the flatbed router table.

When you enlarge a piece this much, the detailing of the mane, tail, feathers and facial features all need to be touched up so they look right for this size piece. Here Steve, one of the sculptors who work for the enlarging company, is adding clay to the mane to add to the detail.

Troy is removing the board that attached the Styrofoam to the rotating table it was on to be cut out.


This is me working on the back hoof. Every bit of it has to be perfect!!

No, I have no idea how Tim can sit that way! He's very limber!

After the horse was finished, he was cut into pieces to be taken to the foundry to be cast. His head and neck were cut off, as were his legs and tail, and then all of him fit inside the box trailer he was hauled in. Yeah, I'm happy with him!

He's being cast in bronze over the winter and will be mounted next Spring. Check my blog for updates.

"Nanning 374: Spirit of the Friesian" is available for purchase in both the maquette size and life-size. Contact me for more information.