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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2003)
MARCH 1, 2003 Smoke Signals Veterans' Memorial Statue 17 A - Nearly Complete - The West Valley Vet erans' Memorial sculpture is in the final stages of the casting process at the studios of Burning Palace Bronze in Boring, Oregon. A tentative date of late April has been set for the sculpture's installation in Grand Ronde. Tribal Veteran Steve Bobb was at the foundry on Thurs day, February 13 to give final approval and sign the base of the sculpture. "I'm really happy with it," said Bobb. "I wouldn't change a thing. The faces look good. It's ex actly what we wanted." Bobb, who sculpted the piece, walked 265 miles from Table Rock in southern Oregon to Grand Ronde in order to raise money for the memo rial. During the lost wax casting process, a wax copy of the original sculpture is made, like the one shown above. The copy is then cut up and coated with slurry, a cement-like substance which when dry will form a hard shell around the wax. The wax is burned out of the slurry mold, leav ing an exact impression of the original sculp ture. Molten bronze is poured into the slurry mold, forming the final bronze sculpture. The mold is then chipped and sandblasted off of the hardened bronze and the pieces joined together and finished to make a beautiful sculpture that will endure for centuries to come. The full size clay sculpture shown here (right) will be cut up into 26 different molds for cast ing. After the bronze is poured, the sections will be reassembled and the entire sculpture will be given a full color patina. It will then be trucked to Grand Ronde to complete the Veterans' Me morial. The memorial will be dedicated to all Grand Ronde and Willamina area Veterans, both Tribal and non-Tribal. CV ' U - ' v ' :'i v ''-"iV h ) I ! I 'r;V? r '7 I Vf If : 4 4 i ' " H V" :.- A. ;" ""--" ' '' ( . ; ; j, , " f" , ,( .,","' , .: .- " . ' ' ' . .. i", ... . .' . .... . J Photos by Peta Tinda !5iM V! ':"'V' 3 ...... Kl- ' i; .... ; Jt0-c 1 ' a ' K.'. . -' It 1 Artistic - Tribal artist Steve Bobb puts his signa ture in the soft clay on the base of the memorial. The signature will be a perma nent part of the sculpture. When finished, the full size bronze figures will stand over ten feet tall and weigh over 20,000 pounds. Bronze, a mixture of cop per and tin, does not rust and is one of the most durable metals known to man. Sculptures made of bronze have lasted for thousands of years. JW . . 'It - - t ''l in 0. y I III V 1 v ! M tit ! I 'i VfiVI "-;,n V' l p& Li Pl v. I
