Metal sculpture is only as good as its foundry and artisans. How do you research and select the right workshop in a country as large and complex as China?
Internet searches can be bewildering, turning up hundreds of companies claiming to be foundries that you could potentially use to cast your creations. But after more than a decade of on-the-ground research in China, I’ve learned that only around five percent of advertised factories are actually foundries. The remainder are enterprising individuals or companies that act as trade agents, or even represent themselves as the manufacturer when they’re not.
Why does this matter?
Most importantly, your quality and process control will be compromised. Additionally, any quote you receive will be marked up further than it needs to be.
Challenging communications
Communications in China can be challenging enough, especially when it comes to important specifics such as design, engineering, and finishing details. Add a third party and you double the difficulty.
Trade agents often cite English language skills as a specialty, but lack in-depth experience in the business and will often miss crucial points they ought to convey to their foundry.
If you’re seen as a westerner, you could also potentially find pricing highly inflated. However, if a trade agent values a continuing relationship, their margins may be as low as five to 10 percent on top of the foundry price.
Beware trade agents
That said, trade agents commonly misunderstand the brief, leading to manufacturing mistakes that need rectification, properly at their expense. Many will try to reverse the process. You pay for the rectification and they offer their five or 10 percent margin as a good will gesture.
However, they cannot afford to give away more than their profit above the principle costs. So if you want to meet your delivery targets, you will need to absorb rectification costs yourself. Discussions on compensation are pointless and will only lead to frustration, expense, delays, less than expected quality, and a compromised outcome all round.
To find the right foundry and to establish a direct contact you will need to spend a good amount of time in China researching foundry facilities. The greater test is developing a streetwise understanding of the business culture.
When I first embarked on this mission in 2005, I found many companies had simply pirated an artist’s website and used their images as examples of sculptures they claimed to have produced. By the time I discovered the foundry I wanted to use, I’d been taken to this same anonymous factory (no company name was visible) three different times by three different trade agencies all claiming to be the factory owners.
Crucial direct contact and partnership
I was fortunate enough to work out what was going on and establish a crucial direct contact with the factory itself, which helped cement our current partnership.
China has a popular but sometimes exaggerated reputation for low cost, poor quality manufacturing. From long and intensive international experience, I know the best sculpture foundries in China rank favourably with their more recognised western equivalents. And they do so at prices that ought to make them more attractive to western buyers.
If you’re looking for assurance that a Chinese foundry can deliver quality, timely, on-brief sculpture to the highest of standards at competitive prices, call Todd Stuart on +61 4 5151 8865, or visit mainartery.art.You might also like to visit How made in China is a synonym for world class sculpture.
