Wildcat 101:
Artist explains sculpting process
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Among the 130 guests who attended the Oct. 14, 2014 unveiling/dedication ceremony of the bronze wildcat sculpture in honor of SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson was the award-winning artist who created the piece, Andreas von Huene of Arrowsic.
Andreas von Huene explained the intricate process he used to create a five-foot long, nearly 300-pound metal sculpture.
“I started off with two little models — one was clay over foam and the other was clay over wood — just to see what the pose should be,” he said.
“We used the lost wax casting process. Once you have this nice model done with clay over the foam — and all the details — I had a friend paint it with rubber. When the rubber is hard, he paints that with plaster, called a mother mold. He takes it all apart and throws my model away and slathers in wax,” von Huene explained. “He takes apart the mold, takes out the wax, and dips it a million times in oatmeal made of quartz powder. When that oatmeal hardens, he heats it up and melts out the wax. Once the wax is gone he pours in hot metal. Then you break all that ceramic off and you get the rough castings. The different sections of the wildcat were then welded together, and then it was retextured where the weld zone is. It’s quite a process.”
Andreas von Huene’s work, which includes abstracts, animals, birds, figurative and fountains, can be found in such Maine communities as Bangor, Bath, Boothbay, Brewer, Brunswick, South Portland and Wells.
For more information, visit the artist’s website at andreasvonhuene.com.
