Mold Making & Editions

Mold making is a step in the process of being able to make multiple renditions of a sculpture. This allows the sculptor to create one master, typically of clay, and create an edition. The pieces in the edition are usually numbered. In a limited edition the artist sets the number of pieces that will be created from the mold. Once that number of sculptures has been produced the molds are then destroyed.

This process is most frequently used for bronzes or other metals. It can be used for other materials as well including some stone or stone-like materials, as long as the material can be poured into the mold and will solidify.

This is how you can see "The Thinker" by Rodin in Paris, France, Kyoto, Japan, and Kansas City, Missouri all at the same time. Well, if you could travel fast enough you could at any rate!

Compare that to Michelangelo's "David", which has one, and only one, original. This piece is hand-carved from marble and lives in Florence, Italy. It would be possible to make a mold of "David" and reproduce it in another material, even a marble composite, so that it looks like the original, but it would always be a copy. With the bronze, the actually creating of the bronze is part of making the original.

The mold-maker is a skilled craftsman in his/her own right, working with the sculptor to create a piece that fulfills the artist's vision.