For metal stone sculpture, casting and cold working are the two most commonly used methods. landscape boulders are created through cold work. Generally speaking, the artist will first use other materials (such as clay) to make a stone sculpture, and then it will be turned into a model made of fiberglass:
Models made of fiberglass will have better strength, and you don`t have to worry about being easily damaged like clay models. When cold working is used, workers will divide the entire outer surface of the stone sculpture into many small pieces and number each piece. The raw materials used for the cold processing of landscape boulders are pre-made stone sculpture of different thicknesses. Workers need to draw corresponding shapes on the stone sculpture according to each numbered small area. Since stone sculpture are flat and the surface of stone sculpture is three-dimensional, firstly, the area of each small piece cannot be too large, and in addition, each small piece also needs to leave a certain amount of room to facilitate subsequent processing.
After the landscape boulders process is completed, the three-dimensional stone sculpture surface becomes a small piece of flat shape:
The next step is to use the simplest and most primitive tools to manually beat each divided piece into a three-dimensional surface that matches the surface of the
stone carving using the ductility of the metal. This process is the most physically demanding and also produces high-intensity noise. It is in such a noisy working environment that the master workers produce exquisite works of art one after another.
This repeated beating requires enough time and patience. This process is only completed when each piece can be better matched with a certain area of the stone carving. After all the small pieces on the surface are hammered into shape, Each small piece is connected by welding to form the outer surface of the final stone sculpture, which looks basically the same as the original work. Since the cold work method shapes the outer surface of the work by tapping, it is more suitable for stone sculpture whose surfaces are not particularly complex.
The surface of the work after welding is relatively rough, which is far from the surface effect we usually have that can be used as a mirror. After the welding is completed, the work still needs to undergo final polishing before the landscape boulders can present the final effect in front of us. Although some power tools are now available for the sanding process, it still requires a lot of time and labor to complete.
