You have an eye and a heartfelt instinct for sculpture that can express your personality now and for generations to come.
The age-old combination of human ingenuity and mastery over casting, fabricating, forging, and carving an array of materials weaves a permanent and magic spell in your imagination. Original sculpture has to be part of your life.
Roger the foundry and fabrication facility I work with I can do more than the process of casting bronze with (can be many materials – aluminium, stainless, copper, steel, glass etc). They also fabricate and forge (hammering the materials into shape) plus can also carve in the instance of stone sculptures.
You’re aware of the costs and risks involved in designing and commissioning a masterpiece. But you also understand the price of procuring quality sculpture from foundries in the developed world. At the same time you’ve heard that China, with its millennia-long reputation for civilisation, innovation, and art, is becoming a serious contender on the world sculpture stage.
Where do you begin your search, and how do you decide?
This list of questions and answers will help you get started. It’s a good introduction to researching the Chinese foundry market. However, in our decade-long experience, it’s no substitute for spending face-to-face time in the country and learning the cultural and business practices that make it a dynamic — and sometimes difficult — place to source magnificent work.
Or you could tap into my 12 years worth of knowledge.
1. What other world-renowned artists trust this facility?
No one ever got sacked for choosing IBM or Microsoft. Likewise, if the biggest or amongst the biggest names in sculpture use the foundry consistently, you can be confident their work ethic, quality standards, and price levels can hold up against international competitors.
2. How long have they been trading?
As well as fulfilling a noble creative destiny with skilled artisans, the best foundries are also well-run, ethical businesses. Of course past performance is no guarantee for the future. But like any other customer-reliant enterprise, a history of fair and equitable trading can point the way to longer-term reliability.
3. What is their capacity?
Sometimes size does matter. Sculpture is a difficult and complex world. Indicators like the number of skilled artisans they employ and the scale and quantity of their larger pieces are often accurate measures of their ability to deliver reliably.
4. How much of the foundry work is conducted in-house?
The greater the proportion of work carried out in-house, the greater and more measurable is your access to process and quality control and risk reduction. Where production elements are outsourced, you need to be confident that you have access to the same or similar levels of transparency.
5. Do they respect artists’ copyright?
Reputable foundries used by international sculptors go out of their way to protect their artists’ works. Less scrupulous foundries are shameless about copying others’ works. You rarely see their artists’ works on their websites nor will they let you photograph of other works under development in their foundry.
6. Do they have in-house translator who has a good command of English and a solid understanding of the larger foundry process?
It’s one thing to speak and understand English, and another to translate it into the many complex design, project management, and production processes involving chemical, metallurgical, and finishing processes that make up multi-faceted sculptural projects.
7. Is there evidence they will implement your quality specifications?
Reputable foundries don’t argue about quality standards. In fact the better ones will sometimes make suggestions that may go beyond the initial quality brief. Avoid foundries, which prefer cutting corners for cost efficiencies to quality. You will pay the price in the end.
8. Are they competitive with their pricing?
Prepare an exact, accurate and comprehensive brief, listing not only the types of materials and finishes, but specific grades and production techniques. That way you should be able to establish the upper and lower limits of the market. Even if you already have a trusted supplier, let them know that you seek optional quotes as a matter of course. It’s a reminder to both parties that open and honest communications are an essential part of what is still a business transaction.
9. Do you really want to do this exhaustive (and exhausting) research yourself?
Consider the time, effort, and money involved in answering all of these questions. While you can gather some intelligence online, remember that you’re dealing with a different culture and sometimes a different interpretation of ethics.
You also have to overcome language and interpretation difficulties that can severely complicate short-term projects.
I have answered these questions in face-to-face encounters in China through more than 60 visits over the last 13 years. When you work with Todd Stuart (+61 4 5151 8865) you benefit from my direct experience built into the project and the price.
For more insights into sourcing sculpture from China, visit (insert link to the whole China blog series here.)
