I have now managed to complete the soldering and assembly of this piece. This is one of the largest works that I have competed, tipping the scale at 1280 grams of bronze. If I complete the sand casting of the clock base it will most definitely be the largest work I have made.

I had cast the hair in 3 parts. In retrospect this was not efficient as I did have some soldering failures with it coming apart on repeated heatings. This is always a risk that a soldered joint comes apart when you heat it to attach something else.

I should have cast the hair as one piece as shown in the picture below. Now that I have put this figure together I better understand how I should sculpt the wax parts for casting.

The head was put on with particular care to ensure she was looking up and to the right. I had to reposition the head after I first attached it as I had it looking too far to the right. Again, this is rework, but it’s necessary to put things right otherwise the other pieces won’t fit properly.

The lower wings were securely pinned and soldered to the body with my bronze solder. I had to use both my torches simultaneously to get enough heat for this. With proper heat control I can use the solder as brazing material to build up the joint so that it is particularly strong.

The upper wings are put on with a lower temperature silver solder. I had to reheat this joint twice to reposition this upper wing to get it to align with the other side.

The final step was to attach her bonnet. This was done after I had filled and brazed an incomplete section of the ponytail joint and other small defects.

The piece is very heavily oxidized due to the various heatings. The surface needs to be polished to remove this oxide layer.

I will post another update when I complete the base for this sculpture.