Bespoke, Custom Products
Photo: bear master mold floating in water with other molds to keep the wax from melting in the warmth of the foundry.
Bespoke, Custom, Unique, Different, Exclusive, Rare, Distinctive, Individual, Special, Novel - whatever you want to call it, we make bronze and brass products that exist only for you.
History
Bronze Betty has been making custom bronze and brass products for over 5 years. Our very first products were created for a business who wanted a unique corporate gift for their customers. The foundries where we cast our bronze and brass and the people who work in them have been casting bronze for over 3,000 years. When you buy Bronze Betty products you are buying over 3,000 years of tradition, expertise and history, all the way back to the bronze age.
What can you make?
With our modern 3D design and 3D printing, there is so much more we can make. The products we have created on our website are a guide to what is possible. What we can make is only limited by your imagination.
You can commission us to create the entire product from scratch, which you approve at every step or you might want to design the master mold yourself and have us create it in bronze or brass. You might, as one customer requested want to provide the metal that goes into the castings or you may want your brand and words laser etched onto your bespoke pieces. We can do it all and so much more.
You can commission us to make a one off piece, like a life size horse or you could commission us to create 100,000 kangaroos.
1. We make bespoke pieces for business to sell to their customers.
2. We make bespoke pieces as trophies and art work.
3. We make display pieces for foyers, shopping centres to roads and museums.
4. We make custom door handles for the front door of your business or home
5. We make custom horses to put at the entry to your equestrian centre.
We work with over 500 experts to create your bronze and brass pieces. From artists to mold makers to metal casters, experts in large castings and experts in small castings. Some of our people have families who have been working in bronze casting for over 3,000 years. We work with the best to create the best. With the end goal of making custom bronze and brass products available to anyone, anywhere in the world.
If you would like to know if its possible to make something, just send us an email or call us. One thing we have learned in this industry is: you will never know if your idea is possible until you ask.
If something bespoke is what you or your organisation are after, the next step is to get in contact with us.
Process to create your bespoke product
Step 1:
You supply us with a photo or example of the product you would like to create. This could be a door handle, a drawing of something, a photo of a person you want a bust created for. This could also be a toy or scale model of something you want to create or an example that gives our designers a good idea of what you would like to create.
Step 1a:
You tell us how many you would like to make. We have different processes for creating a small number of a product to large numbers. Small numbers are up to 50 and large numbers are over 100.
For smaller numbers, we will use 3D printing to create the master mold. For larger numbers, we will create a special mold that creates wax master molds.
Step 2:
Our computer designers will create a model of the product you would like created. We will send this to you as a video file to get your feedback. You will see your product in 3D. Once you are happy, we will move on to the next step.
Step 3:
Depending on whether you want to create a small number or large number of products, the steps will be different. For a small number, we will print your product in our special 3D printers specifically setup for bronze and brass casting.
If you are creating a large number, the next step is the creation of the master mold for the wax molds. A singular product can require several different master molds for each wax component. For example our 20cm crab requires 5 different molds to make each wax mold.
Step 3a:
If you are creating a large number of products, we now need to create the wax molds that will be burnt away in the lost wax process leaving a void that we can fill with bronze or brass.
You do not need to do this step if we have printed them using our 3D printers.
Step 5:
Coating the individual wax molds or 3D prints in multiple layers of clay and sand, with each layer becoming coarser and coarser. The first layer is less than 0.5mm thick. By the time the process is complete, the combined layers can be up to 5cm thick.
Step 6:
Firing the wax and clay and sand molds to burn off the wax. This process heats the molds up to approximately 1,000 degrees celsius so the molten metal pours into them freely. Cold molds solidify the molten metal before they can be filled and they will often explode from water being inside them. It is crucial the molds be heated evenly and have fully set hard before starting the pour.
Step 7:
Mixing and melting the bronze, brass, copper, aluminium, zinc, tin into the specific recipe your bespoke product requires.
Step 8:
Pouring the molten bronze, brass or whatever metal you want into the 1,000 degree celsius clay molds the instant they come out of the furnace.
Step 9:
Waiting for the molds and metal to cool down and then removing the clay and sand surrounding the pieces.
Step 10:
Not every cast works, some are rejected and will be recycled into the next batch and some will come out of the molds exactly like we planned.
Step 11:
Now it's time to finish each piece. For a gold finish, there is lots of sanding and polishing. For a matt gold finish there is less polishing but still plenty of sanding and finishing. For an antique finish, once they are polished to a high shine gold finish, they are then treated with a chemical and heated to give the brown look. For the green they are treated with a chemical. We can also silver the bronze which gives them a silver look. There are many ways to finish the raw bronze.
Step 12:
Sometimes customers request painting and this is when we do that.
The above is just a quick overview of each of the steps required to create custom bronze or brass pieces.
Timeframe
How long it takes to create a bespoke product does depend on the complexity and size of the product. For example, a small one-off bird may take just 30 days from start to having it in your hand. A life size horse created to look exactly like a special horse in your life could take up to 150 days, including shipping from our foundries in Indonesia to Europe. If you were to order 100,000 small birds, you should expect to get the first batch in your hands within 60 days and several thousand a month every month.
On average it takes 90 days from start to having your one off product in your hands.
Cost
Once you have decided you want something bespoke created in bronze or brass, one of the questions that ultimately comes up is cost. Making things in bronze or brass is not cheap but that doesn't mean that bespoke bronze or brass products are out of reach of people. We have worked very hard to make the process of creating high quality bronze or brass products easier and therefore lower cost. For example our prices have been approximately 40% less for a full size horse than any other quote we have seen. For a set of large front door handles, prices are approximately $3,000. For a bust of a human being from the shoulders up, you are looking at approximately $10,000.
The thing to understand about our process is we do not create cheap products and we do not compete on price. We create products that we back with a lifetime warranty, cheap isn't possible when you do that. We hire the best people, some with up to 80 generations of experience in their family and we use the best technology and processes. This allows us to create extremely high quality products for prices that make it possible for some people to afford them.
In saying all of the above, pricing is different for each product we make. Contact us now, engage a leader in the bronze and brass industry globally to find out all the details around your bespoke bronze and brass product.