This is a question with no standard answer, because different animals, different merchants and different needs will lead to different prices. Small life size bronze animal sculptures are probably a few hundred to a thousand dollars, and a large bronze animal is a few thousand or ten thousand dollars. Buying a life-size bronze animal statue can be overwhelming, especially for a first-time buyer. Therefore, I hope this article can help you choose the factory that suits you and buy your favorite animal sculpture at the right price.
Next, I will introduce you to the general casting process of a bronze sculpture and several important factors that affect the price, so as to help you make a better choice.
The General Process of Casting a Life Size Bronze Animal Statue
Step 1 : Clay Model
After receiving the customer’s order, the artist will make a 1:1 clay model of each bronze sculpture. A sufficiently experienced and responsible artist will produce clay molds that are lifelike. The clay model is the basis of the entire sculpture and is important because it directly determines the appearance and details of the entire bronze animal sculpture.
Step 2: Silicone Rubber Mould
The artist will make a silicone rubber mold. The artist covers all clay models with liquid silicone rubber. During the solidification process, all the details of the statue will appear accurately, such as the hair, eyes and other fine parts of the statue.
Step 3: Wax Mold Chasing
Next, the artist uses professional tools to carve the wax model, accurately traces the wax shape according to the original drawing and the customer’s requirements.
Step 4: Sand Shell Making
After the wax model is carved, the artist covers the wax model with fine white sand.
Step 5: Casting bronze
Workers would use crucible pouring the liquid bronze to former made sand shells, the bronze pieces would be formed while the wax molds be heated to flow out.Â
Step 6: Welding
A welder welds the bronze pieces together according to the original requirements. The most important thing in this process is to ensure that the structure is perfect, otherwise the overall sculpture will be far from the original work when compared together. Youjing welders need to understand the customer’s requirements and the structure of the original artwork before starting work.
Step 7: Fine Polishing
After the bronze statue is welded, the artist will carefully polish the statue. It’s not good to polish too much or to polish too softly.
Step 8: Patina
Artists use patina to make bronze statues by mixing different chemical liquids together to varying degrees, and then pouring the liquid onto the bronze surface and heating it. After several layers of discoloration, the beautiful patina finally appears.
Factors Affecting the Price of a Life Size Bronze Animal Statue
I can’t tell you the specific price of a bronze sculpture because there are too many factors that affect it. Let me pick out a few important aspects.
1.Distributor or Manufacturer
Distributors refer to buying sculptures from enterprises with money. They do not buy sculptures for their own use, but resell them. They pay attention to the spread, not the actual price. But the manufacturer is equal to what people often call a direct selling factory. Therefore, it is obvious that the price of the manufacturer is lower than that of the distributors, because there is no middleman between the manufacturer and the customer to make the price difference. If you want to buy high-quality and low-cost bronze animal sculptures, it is important to find the source factory.
2.Custom or Ready-made
Let’s take the example of you finding a direct selling factory, another factor that affects the price of life size bronze animal sculptures is whether you purchased is a model cast by the manufacturer or customized by yourself.
If it is a ready-made sculpture or a sculpture cast in a factory, the price will definitely be cheaper than custom-made sculptures, because this will save you the cost of clay molds.
3.Complex or Simple details
The detailed design of the bronze animal sculpture also determines the price of your sculpture. This is understandable, because a well-designed and intricately detailed sculpture will definitely take more artist time than a sculpture of a simpler style. The longer the construction period, the higher the price will naturally be.
4.Precision Casting or Cutting Corners
As the saying goes, there is no free lunch, so if the bronze animal sculpture you like has obviously intricate details and difficulty in casting, the price will definitely be higher. If the merchant quotes you much lower than other factories, then I think you need to consider their casting process and whether they cut corners.
Where to Get the Best Price on a Life Size Bronze Animal Statue
As a factory with 40 years of manufacture experience, YouFine has its own unique advantages.
First of all, the artists YouFine cooperates with each have an average of 20 years of casting experience, have participated in the production of thousands of clay models, and have a deep understanding of the body structure and living habits of animals. Therefore, the animal clay models sculptured by YouFine are lifelike and have amazing details.
Secondly, YouFine masters advanced technique and uses silica sol molds in the casting process. During the curing process, all details of the statue could be accurately appeared, including the animal’s eyes, hair and other fine parts.
In addition, YouFine is a direct sales factory, so it has the ability to provide customers with the lowest prices. Contact them, maybe you will get a surprise discount.