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Tibetan bhudda statues 13 cm
The Tibetan metalwork art can be traced back as far as the first century BCE. The lost wax technique used in the contemporary statue handcrafting dates as far as the Sui Dynasty (600AD), when the technique was developed from the piece-mold method.
Tibetan Statues crafted through the lost-wax technique undergo an extremely complex process which enables extremely fine details. The method requires that the statue is made of wax which is then coated in a few layers of clay. When the clay is heated, the wax melts away, and the copper is poured in the clay cast. After the clay cast is removed, the tedious work of finishing starts with polishing, then the adjustment of the fine details, followed by the gilding process in which the statue, or parts of it, are plated in gold. For the final touch the face is painted with powder gold paint and semiprecious stones are added to enhance the head decoration.
The results obtained by using the lost wax method are outstanding in detail, finesse and uniqueness, as only one statue can be made of each and one mould.
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