HOW SCULPTURES ARE DONE

sculptors mold images from hard beeswax mixed with a small amount of dammar (resin) from the shal tree. The wax is carefully molded into the separate parts that comprise the sculpture and then lowered into a basin of cold water where it hardens instantly.

to join the individual pieces into a whole, they are returned to a malleable state through brief reheating. Simple tubular struts connect the hands of images to the body providing both stability to the wax model and channels through which molten bronze will be poured. While the wax is still soft, details, down to the individual beads of a sculpted necklace, are added with a sharp wooden chisel.

The heavily clay-encased mold is then baked in a fire pit, melting the wax, which runs out through the channels leaving a perfectly detailed, hollow clay mold. Specialisedmetalworks now take over, heating copper with a small proportion of lead and tin (and in earlier times, small amounts of gold and silver). This alloy is carefully poured into the clay mold, which has been heated to the temperature of the molten metal. The sculptors carefully chip away the clay and then smooth and polish the bronze, a process that can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks. During the Chola dynasty, only the barest minimum of finishing work, such as removing the channels of bronze connecting the hand to the torso, would have remained at this stage. Today, however, artists resort to an extensive amount of cold chiseling that gives a distinct, sharp finish to the details.

After cooling for several days, the clay mold is broken open to reveal a rough version of the sculpture.

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