Hands of a sculptor

[schrackman]

This is my last post before heading off to L.A. tomorrow. These hands belong to Dan Besseman, a local artist in Banning. Here he is working on a belt buckle with the stagecoach theme (Banning is nicknamed "Stagecoach Town, U.S.A.), which he will later cast in bronze. I got a chance to visit him today and check out some of his latest work. This shot was converted to b/w in PS with just a tad of the grain filter added..

[jar_e]

Ray,

Great shot. Love the grain filter on it! Very interesting by the way...I never knew how they made a belt buckle....learn something new everyday!

[schrackman]

Thanks Jared! There is actually a lot more to the process as this picture below demonstrates. First wax, then a mold, then a plaster-like cast. I'm not sure exactly what part of the process is used to cast into bronze, but from what I understand it will cost around $200 just to have the belt buckle cast into bronze. If it was a mass production thing then the cost would be easily absorbed, but when you're talking about a single original piece such as the buckle above, one can easily see how expensive the process can be. So I learned a little bit of something myself...art is not cheap!

[natatbeach]

i missed this one---beautiful shot....

[schrackman]

Thanks Nat!