6 MARCH 1, 2004
Smoke Signals
Bold In Bronze
Tribal member Billy Bobb gets his art
habit underway with foundry business.
By Peta Tinda
Wildfire Bronze is the name Tribal member
Billy Bobb gave his business, an apt title when
you consider the molten metal and fiery tem
peratures involved in casting a bronze sculpture.
Bobb, who lives near Valley Junction, grew
up in the Grand Ronde area and attended high
school in Willamina, described himself as always
interested in art and sculpture.
After graduation from high school Bobb left
for Los Angeles where he was hired to build
movie sets for such big-budget films as "Total
Recall," "Hotshots" and "The Abyss" which won
three Academy Awards in 1989 for best set di
rection, best cinematography and best visual
effects.
He has also worked on sets for amusement park
simulator rides and "countless commercials."
Bobb said that many of the skills he learned
working building movie sets translate over to the
foundry business.
"The mold material is almost identical," he said.
Bobb first got interested when he started do
ing sculpture of his own and began to look for
places to have them cast in bronze.
"It was just too expensive" he said. "So I de
cided to do it myself. I built my own foundry, for
my own stuff the ironic thing is, I've been so
busy with other things, I haven't had time to do
my own pieces."
So far things have been working out well, he
said. He has several pieces that he is casting for
other artists, including one that was already sold
to a New York gallery by Northwest artist Dora
Natella.
"I can keep my prices competitive because I
do all of the work myself,"
If he gets enough pieces on commission, he
A.
Ready For Business Tribal member
Billy Bobb converted his garage into a lost wax
bronze casting foundry. Billy is the son of Steve
and Connie Bobb and the grandson ofWilson
and Lena Bobb. He first honed his skills
working on movies sets in Hollywood, before
moving back to Valley Junction to start his
business.
Photos by Peta Tinda
1 w
wants to eventually work full time, expanding
beyond his garage, which serves as his work
shop. He has high hopes for his undertaking.
"I haven't done any advertising, all of my busi
ness so far has been word of mouth," he said. He
sees this as an encouraging sign.
Bobb said that it took him the better part of a
year to get all of the equipment needed to run
his foundry. He was working on a limited bud
get, so he built many of the parts he needed by
himself and took classes at Chemeketa Commu
nity College to figure out the rest.
"I built my own blast furnace and kiln and
just read a lot about the rest.
I also took lost wax classes at the college."
He said he likes working with his hands and
likes the details involved.
"There's a lot of art involved, but you also have
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Works of Art At left, Bobb
points to one of the wax copies of
an elk he sculpted. The wax
sculptures will be covered in a
high-temperature mold and the
wax melted out, leaving a hollow
impression of the elk to pour
molten bronze into. This tech
nique is called the "lost wax"
casting process.
Wild Flames leap from the
blast furnace as Billy Bobb
(below), owner ofWildfire
Bronze, turns on the gas. Bobb
built the furnace himself, which
can reach temperatures of 2,000
degrees.
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to be half a construction worker," he said.
To cast a sculpture in bronze, Bobb first makes
a flexible rubber mold around an original sculp
ture, which is then supported by a stronger plas
ter mold to give it rigidity. Wax is then poured
into the mold, making an exact copy of the origi
nal, once the wax cools. Bobb then covers the
wax copy with a concrete-like dip of slurry, fol
lowed by progressively finer grades of sand.
When this dries, it makes hard, fire-resistant
shell around the wax. The wax is melted out in
a kiln, leaving a hollow mold to pour the molten
bronze into.
Bronze heated to 2,000 degrees is poured into
the red-hot molds and allowed to cool... and then
the real work begins.
The bronze is then painstakingly chipped out
of the hardened slurry and then sandblasted to
remove any leftover bits. Rough spots or seam
lines have to be filled in or removed with a
grinder and the whole thing welded back to
gether. The piece is sandblasted again and heated with
a propane torch so that the metal expands. A
chemical patina is brushed or sprayed on while
the metal is hot. When the metal cools, it traps
the color inside. The sculpture is then given a
coat of wax, a hand polishing and mounted on a
base.
Only when all this is finished can Bobb step
back and admire his handiwork.
"You get a chance to work on beautiful pieces,"
he said. "I like working with other people be
cause it gives me new ideas."
Bobb also helped with the Tribal Veterans'
Memorial when it was being installed if front of
the Governance Center.
It was discovered that the granite columns
that list the Veterans names did not reach all
the way to the brick surface of the memorial be
cause of the way it is sloped to allow rain runoff.
Bobb was given two weeks to cast a bronze
trim before the opening ceremony. The average
bronze piece takes two months to finish, so he
was under considerable pressure. He took the
measurements of the columns, and found that
each one was slightly different, so he couldn't
make just one mold. Undaunted, he went to
work and finished on time, but only just.
Crowds were arriving for the Memorial Day
ceremony as he finished putting in the last
screws. "The pieces were still hot from the pa
tina," he said. "Meeting deadlines is pretty im
portant." Bobb said that he wants to keep making art
and eventually wants to get his own pieces into
galleries.
He likes the thought of making something that
will last for thousands of years, long after he is
gone.
"I like the thought of making something per
manent, which until someone melts it down
is going to stay." D