First Intro craftsmanship of cast-bronze furnishings
craftsmanship of cast-bronze furnishings Made in Italy. Designed and produced by Osanna Visconti in Milan at an Italian casting foundry, as a result each piece is one-of-a-kind.
Second Intro craftsmanship of cast-bronze furnishings
craftsmanship of cast-bronze furnishings Made in Italy. Designed and produced by Osanna Visconti in Milan at an Italian casting foundry, as a result each piece is one-of-a-kind.
Third Intro craftsmanship of cast-bronze furnishings
Design objects craftsmanship Designed and produced by Osanna Visconti in Milan at an Italian casting foundr, as a result each piece is one-of-a-kind.
Fourth Intro
Craftsmanship of cast-bronze furnishings Made in Italy. Designed and produced by Osanna Visconti in Milan at an Italian casting foundry. Each piece is one-of-a-kind.
All of Osanna Visconti’s creations are fused in natural bronze using the lost-wax casting method. This ancient technique works with a negative form in which molten metal is cast. Osanna kneads and shapes her initial wax sculpture by hand. As the defining element of her creations, the wax model is used to create a plaster mould. During the drying phase in kilns heated to 650°C, the wax is melted and drained away, leaving behind the negative form for the casting of bronze in the art foundry.
“It’s very difficult to find young people who have the passion to learn this manual job. I hope that tomorrow’s youth will appreciate the beauty in being an artisan.”
Italian designer and maker, Osanna Visconti, casts exquisitely detailed jewellery and objects, both functional and decorative, from natural bronze using the lost wax technique – an ancient method that Greek and Roman artisans have been using since bronze was discovered 3000 years ago. Osanna shares with Cabana Magazine her love of historic buildings, collecting and artisanship, and discusses her hopes for the future of her craft.
fused in natural bronze
About
Artist Portrait
During her childhood in Rome, Osanna and her sister Turchese would play with pieces of art created for their mother by Lucio Fontana, Mario Ceroli and Arnaldo Pomodoro. It could be said that the pieces she creates today are inspired by those wonderful memories. Visconti studied at Accademia della Moda e del Gioiello, apprenticed under the goldsmith Teresa Schwendt in Rome. After perfecting her technique at the Gemological Institute of America in New York, Osanna returned to Rome, where in a basement workshop in Via Giulia she discovered the magnetism of cera persa (lost wax) casting. It was instant attraction.
With the concert of time and life, her expertise of jewels gave way to unique visions of more sizable objects and home furnishings. Starting at first with small-scale candleholders and decorative boxes; she later worked up to stools, vases and lamps. Ultimately, she came to craft the immense creations she is known for, including tables, armchairs, mirrors, room dividers and bookshelves, charting her own creative path beyond dimensions.
Osanna never stops creating. Always in perpetual motion, her home doubles as a workshop where she invents everything herself, from the definitively small to the infinitely large, weaving her own universe as she goes. International likewise is her clientele, who surround the Milanese Atelier in a collective gathering sui generis.
“I would define myself as an artisan because I love crafting things, but I also consider myself a designer. I love being in the art foundry, spending my days modelling with my hands.”
Lost-wax casting
Every day, Osanna sits at her workbench, surrounded by wax sheets and countless tools. Classical music in the background. She lights the fire, rips pieces of wax and starts warming and delicately sculpting them. From jagged edges and shifting surfaces – at times wavy, other times striped – the object she has in mind slowly takes shape. At long last, it becomes the plaster mould, the defining element to be cast in bronze. Through her working relationship with artisanal craftsworkers at art foundries near Milan, her vision is brought to life.
Craftsmanship
The Process
Phase 1: Modelling
The original model of the Artist, with unlimited material and undercuts.
Phase 2: Sculpting
Creation of a mould in plaster and silicon, the first Negative.
Phase 3: Wax
From the negative a second positive is extracted, with a thickness of 5 mm.
Phase 4: Retouching
The artist retouches the wax by hand, ready to be transformed into Bronze.
Phase 5: Sprue Rods
Application of the sprue-rods: channels made of wood, wax or plastic, applied to direct the flux of the molten bronze during the casting phase.
Phase 6: Coverture
Coverture of the waxes and channels with a mixture of refractory material and plaster to create a cylinder, the second negative.
Coverture Phase
Phase 7: Drying
The refractory cylinder is heated at a temperature of up to 650°C in the furnaces of the art foundry for twelve days, in order to eliminate water, wax, sprue-rods and synthesize the refractory.
Phase 8: Casting
Casting at a temperature of 1200°C, the molten bronze runs in the void left by the channels, filling the interstice left by the lost wax.
Bronze Casting in Action
Phase 9: Extraction
Extraction of the Bronze from the refractory mould, which is grinded and recycled.
Phase 10: Cleaning and Sprue-Rods Cut
The Bronze is washed with a high-pressure water stream and the channels are removed.
Phase 11: Artistic Chiselling
The Sculpture is finely chiselled by hand, to remove all flaws and refine the volume and details of the wax model, preparing the surface for patina finishing.
Phase 12: Patina Finish
The final patina is applied, a chromatic surface of the colour selected by the client.
