The brief
This time, we were asked by Ralph Lauren to replicate two of their heavy bronze horse sculptures in a lighter material for all their new store openings, meaning that they would be less expensive in both a manufacturing and shipping aspect. Yet, like any retail display props, the sculptures still needed to be high quality and robust.
Prop process images
The Process
For this we needed to think about design, material and of course, time. We were also dealing with making up to forty versions of the same prop and we had to make the mould around the existing bronze sculpture which we weren’t allowed to break down into smaller, more manageable parts.
The original bronzes that we took moulds from were very expensive and we weren't able to cut them down into smaller manageable sections to mould from, so a very intricate silicone mould was taken from them. There were many sections to the mould casing and some of the parts on the horses to be cast were very small so laying up the fibreglass into the finished moulds had to be done with great care. We opted for a silicone mould and cast job so that each bare product would look exactly the same. Each mould was incredibly intricate as it had to be made in several pieces.
The finished casts were then painted with primer ready for the bronze paint effect.
However, it’s in the painting where the differences can occur between the products. But thanks to our experience and expertise as scenic artists, we knew just how to make sure that every single paint job was replicated perfectly.
Project Image
The Result
As always, it was a privilege to work for such a renowned company and creating their widely-recognised logo in a 3D model form was a fantastic project.
We managed to keep to the client’s tight design brief, the budget and their exact specifications which all came down to quality project management and a dedicated, motivated team – just a few things that we pride ourselves on here at Spur Creative.