It was a real 911 moment!!
A classic fountain, which had been hand sculpted in the 30’s had oxidized to the final breaking point. The only way to restore it – and have it last, was to recreate it as a Bronze from the 1930’s pot metal castings that were totally compromised over time to a point-of-disrepair. These beautiful statues, dubbed, ‘The Twins’, were beyond salvage to anyone but Philip ‘Cal’ Brainard. He made up his mind to resurrect ‘The Twins’ in the image of their playful nature as originally conceived!
Just removing ‘The Twins’ and submitting them to a cleaner bath found very little metal left. The pot metal was compromised over the years by tremendous acidification.
The customer was heart broken and didn’t want to let ‘The Twins’ go. With few pictures and little to go on, ‘Cal’ took the project on.
Pictured on the left is the poor condition of the bronze when it first came out of the cleaning bath. Everybody was completely shocked to see there was very little metal left once the deoxidation bath had been applied. Fortunately, “Cal” had fallen in love with ‘The Twins’ and his artistic nature kicked in. He would take ‘The Twins’ from their broken state and reinvent them for the next millennium.
Below is the damage indicating it would be a substantial restoration process. Even 
the faces were crumbling after the bath.
Despite the tremendous damage, Philip was undeterred, he took on the process in stages. There was a mold that needed to be made and somehow ‘The Twins’ needed to be reunited. Philip went about the creation of the molds needed, located pictures of the original statues, and used his metal skills to invent methods which would allow the twins to be hand-crafted back to life. Much like a relationship of a father to his children ‘Cal’ bread the life back into this majestic couple. He was motivated by the love of art, and to prove his dominance in the custom metal working trade.
After some trials and errors the project began to show signs of success, for which Philip had no doubt.
First the heads needed rebuilding for inspiration.
Then the body parts…
and the legs.
Finally it was time to assemble; at last “the twins” were back! Now they could live for another millennium. For the customer, they now own a priceless original one-of-a-kind piece of art which they can enjoy for many years to come.
A grand couple in their place of residence.
