Materials
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze is an extremely durable metal and very tough but relatively soft. Thin wires bend easily but make a foundry casting of a figure and it will last you thousands of years.
Foundry Bronze Casting
This term describes a process which depends upon the melting of bronze ingots and pouring the metal into the mould. This may be a process of wax investment or in monumental work of sand casting. All such castings are cast hollow partly to save on costs and partly because bronze will crack when cooling beyond a certain thickness.
Float Bronze Casting
This describes a process registered as a Trade Mark to Thomas & Peters, in which minute particles of pure bronze are bonded and applied in liquid form to the mould and forming a shell shape of the item being cast. This shell is then subjected to a resin core casting process and at the same time reinforced with steel armatures to make a solid piece. Golf clubs and flags are also reinforced with steel and in certain cases copper armatures.
Every element of the process of producing such casting is done by hand. No single process from start to finish, from casting to the final polish and mounting can be left to a machine.
Lakeland Slate
Thomas & Peters works are mounted on green lakeland slate which is technically a stone, only found in the Lake District of Cumbria in England. The stone is cut, dressed and assembled by highly skilled stone masons who have worked for Thomas & Peters since the company was started.
Variations of colour and structure occur naturally in and between mineral and chemical materials of production and printing. For instance some stone has marbling some not.