• Bronze dogs
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Heart and Soul

Dogs live in the present moment. But this charming bronze pack is created for a small eternity.

Limited Edition

sold out

They have captured hearts in no time at all. Cicero, Artemis and Rhea – the beautifully worked bronze dogs of our current Autumn/Winter Edition have already found their joyful new owners. The limited edition of just 24 pieces each is unfortunately, completely sold out.

 

Dogs are spirited creatures and enjoy being active. Something the Hamburg based sculptor Irina Wege well knows – they certainly don’t hold a pose for very long.

However as a trained observer, she has the ability to retain impressions and details, grasp the intrinsic nature of each individual and bring it to finished form in her studio.

 

Cicero

sold out
Size: W 4 x D 13,5 x H 9,5 cm
Coat colour: bronze
Character: attentive

Cicero

Like Aristo, Elea and Othello, who very quickly found good homes last year, the new ensemble with their typical postures, was modelled in wax and then cast in bronze as a limited edition of 24 pieces each. The raw casts were then finely worked until the nature of each dog was brought to life.

 

Artemis

sold out
Size: W 4 x D 9 x H 9 cm
Coat colour: bronze
Character: independent

Artemis

Cicero, Artemis and Rhea remain unmoving for long enough to allow themselves to be adoringly gazed at and touched, time and time again.

 

Rhea

sold out
Size: W 4 x D 13,5 x H 6 cm
Coat colour: bronze
Character: calm

Rhea

From the idea

to the sculpture

An old dog, upon whom the years had conferred a distinctive appearance, and his owner caught Irina Wege’s attention as she looked out of her studio window – a touching sight that she initially recorded in a linocut. Ever since then dogs – mostly in the shape of small, fine bronze sculptures – have firmly established themselves in her work.

The creative process usually begins with sketches or detailed drawings that furnish the initial idea with form and clarity. After that the modelling begins. Irina Wege chooses wax for the dogs, as this medium allows a more sensitive realisation of fine detail than does clay.

From this model, the sculptress makes a mould of plaster and silicone, from which the required number of wax replicas can be made. Each wax model is reworked, cleaned and numbered, before the little pack goes to a bronze foundry where each of the dogs is embedded in a mixture of fireclay and gypsum. After the forms have hardened, the wax is melted out in an oven over a period of several days, and molten bronze is then poured into the resulting cavities. After cooling down, the fireclay can be knocked off.

Back in the studio, the artist chisels and colours the raw casts, until each dog has become an unmistakable individual.

Irina Wege
sculptor

  • completed in 1989/90 a traineeship in sculpture under Hubertus Hess in Hamburg.

  • studied from 1990 to1996 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg under Prof. Wilhelm Uhlig and Prof. Tim Scott.

  • became a master student under Prof. Tim Scott in 1996

  • established her own studio in Hamburg in 1997, and shows at numerous exhibitions.