Well, I have the pirate wench all together.

This stage, which is the soldering and fitting and cutting, is perhaps the most tedious and possibly the most dangerous work. I work with torches and hot metal and grinding devices and sometimes it is hard to get pieces to fit together properly.

After casting I clean the pieces in a weak acid. For some reason, once the main casting was cleaned, I noticed a cavity underneath the shoulders of the torso. I wonder if I had a large air hole in my wax model? This is repaired by adding new metal.

The next step is to add the hair and leg parts. This is where the work begins. Sometimes the soldering takes a lot of heat and the joint doesn’t quite go together as I want. Sometimes, if the work gets too hot, parts can melt. There can be rework and extra repair during this stage. You can see that the piece gets progressively dirtier and darker as the metal oxidizes.

The final stage is to fill various defects. For example, some of the earlier pictures show a wax seam or slight casting flaw on the girl’s bikini top. There were a few other holes that needed repair, too. These are usually filled with solder, much like adding brazing material.

The next post will show the finished piece. I will move the girl’s pirate hat as I think it was set too far back on her head. Once this is corrected the metal needs to be cleaned, filed, and polished. Then, enamel is required for her costume.

The complete bronze work weighs 1.2 kg.