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Victoria Brailsford

Victoria is primarily a wood and stone carver, an artist in residence between Stocksbridge and Sheffield. Her main scope is contemporary pieces in stone with a yearning for a good glass factory to produce ideas.
This Fox, standing approximately 1.5 metres high, has been placed in a park around Oldham for several years and was originally carved in wood. The statue was to be removed by the council as it started to rot through time.
Local pressure however, called for a replacement and it was decided to offer a more long lasting material.
Cast Iron was chosen and because of our reputation we were asked if we could make an original off the rotten wood original. Victoria, repaired and patched the statue that had been removed from Oldham.
We had previously met to discuss our requirements and how to achieve them to produce the most accurate reproduction from the wood
The three pictures so far show the pattern
( The original carving ) in the mould, we use cast iron boxes to hold the sand in place and carefully make joints and loose pieces which allows us to copy the detail off the pattern. The end casting is to be hollow, as solid it would way 4 or 5 tonne. Getting higher and higher the head will eventually be covered with sand, which will harden. The whole is then stripped away like a 3 dimensional jigsaw. The pattern is removed, a central part to hollow out the sand is made from the mould. The boxes and sand are all re-assembled and the mould is ready for casting. 
After casting Victoria, cut in some of the missing fur lines and linished the surface to produce highlights and texture before allowing the natural rust to colour the fox.
This is a close up of the tail area showing the detail at patina as the piece begins to rust. We managed to retain many of the original carved hair lines, although Victoria had to re-cut the areas hat were too undercut for us to keep the detail when moulding.
The old and the new. Filler can be seen on the original wood version at the back when the repairs were done before the casting. Whie paint on the iron version shows off his markings, but will not last forever.
A handsome creature, togged out and ready to be welcomed back to Oldham.
At last as he stands in the yard ready to go.
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