STEEPLEJACK Fred Dibnah would have felt right at home in the Welsh foundry where his statue is being crafted.
It has turned from clay to bronze as the project to immortalise Bolton’s famous son nears completion.
The statue was created in clay by sculptor Jane Robbins in her studio in Shropshire.
And she has handed it over to Castle Fine Arts Foundry in Powys, whose staff took a silicon mould of the clay, coated it with a glass fibre shell and then recreated Fred in their workshop using an old “lost wax” technique combined with a modern ceramic shell process.
This involves wax being used to coat the shell which is then dipped in liquid ceramic which melts the wax, leaving a void.
Bronze, at a temperature of 1100 degrees C, is then poured in. When cooled – which takes only an hour – the ceramic mould is broken away to reveal the cast.
Fred had been “cast” in ten pieces plus one hand, a head and neck piece.
The lightning conductor he is to hold was cast as a separate piece.
Chris Weston is the production manager at the foundry, which has created bronzes of Beatle John Lennon which is at the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, and former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly.
Mr Weston said the finishing touches were now being put to the statue which is being welded together.
He said: “We are working on a template for Fred’s spectacles at the moment.”
The statue will eventually be sand- blasted and the finished half-ton statue will be transported to Bolton.
Sculptor Jane said: “I am delighted with the statue.
“It has been an honour to create Fred’.
“I am sure he would have loved to have seen the process which created the statue.”
The statue has been paid for by the public after the Fred Dibnah Appeal Fund was set up after his death in 2004 at the age of 66.
The fund was organised by Bolton and District Civic Trust in conjunction with The Bolton News.
Donations came from all parts of the country and raised more than £46,000.
Mr Brian Tetlow, chairman of the Civic Trust. said he was delighted that the project was nearing completion. He said: “It has taken a long time, but will be worth the wait.”
(source)
