A Symbiotic Relationship Between Sculptor and Foundry

(L–R) Clint Howard, owner of Pyrology Foundry, and Wesley Wofford, sculptor, posing in front of "Sowing the Seeds for the Future." Claire Suminski

FRANKLIN, N.C.—Without a foundry, Emmy and Academy Award winning sculptor Wesley Wofford would have no way of achieving the imposing works of art at his Western North Carolina studio. Without sculptors like Wofford, Pyrology Foundry in Bastrop, Texas, would have no way of embracing emerging technologies and melding them with a 5,000-year-old lost wax casting process.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” said Clint Howard, a sculptor and Pyrology’s owner since 1999. “The artist and foundry must work together through every step of the process. The better that relationship is, the better the work turns out. And conversations must start in the very early design stages. … Some pieces have over five years in development before we even get started, so we become as invested in their completion as the artist and clients do. It’s a fun process!”

Mr. Wofford has been sculpting for almost three decades, and one of his most noteworthy works is his “Harriet Tubman Journey to Freedom” piece that has been a traveling exhibit since 2020.

However, it is his “Sowing the Seeds of the Future” sculpture that enabled a group of women with the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County in Franklin, North Carolina, to learn about the interconnectedness of the sculptor and the foundry.

Three Appalachian Mountain Women

Soon to be installed at the entrance to Franklin and adjacent to an ancient Native Indian mound, “Sowing the Seeds of the Future,” begun in 2018, represents three regionally historic Appalachian Mountain women: a settler, a slave, and a Native American.

Three Western North Carolina-based contemporary women were chosen to model the women represented: Sculptor and artist Angela Cunningham was the model for Timoxena Siler Sloan, a settler in the 1800s; blues Jazz lead singer Delphine Kirkland posed for Salley, a slave whose last name is unknown; and Wahlalah Brown of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians was the model for Na-Ka Rebecca Morris, a Cherokee woman.

Watching the Sculpture Develop

Folk Heritage Association board members Claire Suminski, Mary Polanski, and Marty Greeble traveled to Texas in May to meet up with Wofford and Howard and experience first-hand the final process of creating the 1,500-pound, 7-foot sculpture.

“It was an experience I’ll never forget,” said Ms. Suminski, who pointed out that her grandfather and father both worked for a foundry on the Hudson River, when she was growing up in the Adirondacks of New York. The “clanging metal and smell of fire” evoked a sensory memory from her childhood.

The casting stage requires skilled workers at the Pyrology Foundry in Bastrop, Texas, to place bronze ingots inside a graphite crucible heated to approximately 2000 degrees in a furnace. Claire Suminski

The three women had been “fortunate enough,” according to Suminski, to view many different aspects of the sculptor-foundry process on “Sowing the Seeds for the Future” back home in North Carolina; yet, actually visiting the 30,000-square-foot Pyrology Foundry site, where 40 employees work meticulously on sculptures in various stages, solidified for them the intricacies involved.

“We observed workers getting any little nubs and marks ground and torched off,” shared Ms. Suminski, adding that after the sculpture was sand blasted and polished it was heated up and different acids were applied to form the patina, or color, of the statue.

“We observed workers getting any little nubs and marks ground and torched off,” said Claire Suminski, on the board with Folk Heritage Association of Macon County in Franklin, N.C., watch the final processes that the sculpture, "Sowing the Seeds of the Future" underwent. Claire Suminski

But long before Suminski and fellow board members traveled from North Carolina to Texas, Pyrology Foundry traveled from Texas to North Carolina and back again.

Mr. Howard explained. “First, we helped enlarge the piece from the maquette (a small-scale model). [After an additional one-third maquette was sculpted by the artist,] Wesley provided us with a digital scan, and we milled it full-size in Styrofoam. This is a foam core that we gave back to Wesley. He then covered it in clay and sculpted the final piece at full-size with full details.

“Once Wesley finished, we traveled to his studio and made a rubber mold off of that full-size piece. The mold was then shipped back to Texas, and we used the mold to make a wax copy of the sculpture that was then cast in bronze using the lost wax casting process. There are many nuanced steps to this process, but over 30 employees touched the piece during its production and form start to finish, with just our part taking six to nine months.”

Ms. Polanski said, “The workers at the foundry are so crucial to the outcome of the sculptor’s art,” after she visited Pyrology in May. “Every part of this process was impressive. Seeing what was done at the foundry and watching an artist like Wesley work and stay so focused just fascinated me.”

Once the sculpture is cast and cooled, a torch is used to heat the surface and chemicals are applied. The resulting chemical reaction leaves a distinct patina, as evidenced on figure representing Salley, an enslaved woman. Claire Suminski

Mr. Wofford noted the significance of finding a foundry adept at understanding the sculptor-foundry relationship—especially because foundries in the United States are rare. In fact, Mr. Howard said, “We are one of a very small group of full-service art foundries in America, and we consider only three to four others as peers.”

“Pyrology is absolutely essential to the success of all of our projects, and because of the nature of [the interdependent relationship], we’ve become not only partners but friends.”

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