This comprehensive guide to every aspect of making sculpture presents all the tools that the contemporary artist will need for translating ideas, through technique, into finished works. The book offers step-by-step advice on traditional styles as well as avant-garde modes that challenge the limits of technique and the imagination.

Creating a successful sculpture requires an imaginative concept and a sound design that utilize the potential and avoid the limitations of the material and the process used in making it. Prior to a few decades ago, most sculptors were restricted to carving stone and wood or casting plaster, ceramics and bronze for their creations. Contemporary sculptors, however, are no longer bound by the limitations of these traditional materials and processes, and can now create works in sizes, forms and textures that could not have been achieved previously. Many modern sculptures are now made from materials ranging from steel and aluminum to plastics and composites using processes ranging from welding and adhesive bonding to molding and 3D printing. To fully utilize the full potential of such new materials, the sculptor needs to understand their points of strength, their limitations, and the most effective way of shaping them to achieve a given design. Although this book is written by a materials engineer, the subject matter is presented from the point of view of the sculptor with emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of different materials, their resistance to weather conditions, natural color and possible surface textures, possible methods of shaping and joining, tools and equipment needed, and safety measures to take. Whenever possible, case studies are used to illustrate the sequence of processes and the cost elements involved in shaping a given material to create an actual work of sculpture.

Offers advice on using tools and constructing armatures as well as shaping human figures, portrait heads, and bas reliefs from clay, plaster, wood, stone, and metal

Step-by-step techniques for modeling the portrait in clay, firing meethods and mold making.

Carle is one of the most beloved illustrators of children's books. This retrospective is more than just an appreciation of his art, however. The book also contains an insightful autobiography illustrated with personal photographs, an anecdotal essay by his longtime editor, a photographic essay on how Carle creates his collages, and writings by Carle and his colleagues. Still, it is the artwork in the oversize volume that seizes the imagination. More than 60 of his full-color collage pictures are handsomely reproduced and serve as a statement of Carle's impressive talent. - Booklist

You will then learn how to create a mold to cast the sculpture in wax, pour the molten bronze, and finesse the final bronze sculpture."--BOOK JACKET. "Whether you are an experienced sculptor trying bronze for the first time, or someone entirely new to sculpture, From Clay to Bronze will serve as your one-stop reference."--BOOK JACKET.