Urning a living

This year so far has seen me spending a bit of time each week with Brain doing a bit more restoration work on some pretty old lead. The size of this job has dictated that it be done at Brians workshop, (unlike the apple seller statue that we worked on last year which dangled from a hoist at my workshop for a while) and its been nice to spend some time out and about and in the real world!
This one is Big Urn, he's upside down and about 3ft, the bit we've got here.(the next job on the bench in Little Urn) Big urn has gone the way of much ancient lead statuary, he has collapsed under his own weight, and caved in. My job is to rebuild whats missing or distorted and then make a mould, so that we can make new replacement parts using lost wax. Brain will cut out the old useless bits and add in the new stronger parts, which make the piece a useable functioning piece of lead ornament again for the next 300 years rather than a pile of scrap lead!
While we are at it we may also take a pattern of the rest of the detail so that Brian can make copies in future.
Little urn is less that 12'' tall but has gone the same way as big urn, possibly a bit too far, so we may just be using it to make a copy. Watch this space to see that one in progress.