origami goes bronze

Post by **TheRealChris** » September 22nd, 2009, 9:43 am

a friend of mine had a very nice idea. he gave some origami models to another friend to make bronze sculptures from those models.
what came out was this
fist the origamimodel then the bronze scultpure. the original origami model was destroyed within the bronze making process so the shown pictures are only similar foldings.
[img]http://freenet-homepage.de/origamichris ... erg/g1.JPG[/img]
[img]http://freenet-homepage.de/origamichris ... erg/g2.JPG[/img]
[img]http://freenet-homepage.de/origamichris ... erg/e1.JPG[/img]
[img]http://freenet-homepage.de/origamichris ... erg/e2.JPG[/img]

childofsai · Post by **childofsai** » September 22nd, 2009, 12:09 pm

This is really something!

Could you explain the process involved?

Diopside · Post by **Diopside** » September 22nd, 2009, 2:19 pm

Cool, i would also be interested in the process!

origamimasterjared · September 22nd, 2009, 5:25 pm

They look great!

A number of years ago, the city of Santa Monica, California had Robert Lang make 4 origami pieces that were then bronzed and made into small statues atop the drinking fountains at four street corners in forming a 2 block x 2 block square. The four were: frog, dragonfly, garibaldi, sea urchin. Their crease patterns were each engraved into the street intersection. The city did fairly quickly remove the garibaldi and sea urchin, because they were afraid some one would injure themselves. Supposedly a flying fish and sea turtle were added in 2005. I haven't seen them yet. If I find my old photos I'll post them.

Post by **TheRealChris** » September 22nd, 2009, 6:18 pm

I dont know anything about the process, just that it was done by somebody

I'm sorry.

Sunburst · Post by **Sunburst** » September 22nd, 2009, 9:54 pm

Wow, that's wickedly awesome! I, too, am interested in the process (if someone ever finds out about it.)

ftangdude55 · Post by **ftangdude55** » September 22nd, 2009, 10:02 pm

Well, on Robert Lang's site, it says that: "The origami figures were then cast in bronze using the lost-wax process...". Details entailing lost-wax casting can be found here.

HankSimon · Post by **HankSimon** » September 22nd, 2009, 10:07 pm

There are other Origami artists who work in metal, but I can't come up with names at the moment. You might try Google for origami metal cast.

I did (non origami) metal work many years ago, using a method called Lost Wax.

1. Place the model in a substance called Investment, which is a silicon based material with properties similar to plaster of Paris, but works at very high temperatures.

2. Jiggle everything to get rid of bubbles and air pockets.

3. Heat everything to the melting point of the metal, so that the model will burn off.

4. Pour molten metal into mold and spin like crazy.

5. Dump everything into water and clean the model.

Easier said than done !

- Hank Simon

unpocodearte · Post by **unpocodearte** » September 25th, 2009, 4:31 pm

I found these picture in Flickr.

The Origami Forum

origami goes bronze

origami goes bronze

Interesting