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Coat Rack, 1998, bronze & cheery wood. Three Kinds of Casting: First I went to a Chinese grocer and bought a whole chicken foot which I cast into a polyurethan block. Without air, the foot did not rot, and I could replicate it in modeling clay at my leisure. (I recently found several chicken toes I had cast in the same fashion, they look unchanged after almost 20 years - cool and yucky). From the clay positive, I made a silicone RTV negative and from that cast four wax positives. After giving each a unique toe expression, I attached sprues and vents to the wax positives and set them in plaster. I used the standard "lost wax" process - burning out the wax and filling the plaster cavity with molten bronze.  After many hours of finishing the bronze, I machined mounting holes into the flanges. I routered a bevel on the edges of a cherry plank, sanded it, sealed it with clear shellac and attached the feet with brass wood screws. This coat rack has performed beautifully during almost 20 years of active use. 

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Caged, 1997, bronze & butterfly wing. Two pieces made free-hand in wax. I cast them using the lost wax process. 

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Parts, 2012, bronze. These are parts (8 arms and 1 nose) arranged for the photo.  I made the waxes and sent them out to be cast.