How Do Patinated Bronze Castings Immortalise Fleeting Moments?

One of the biggest reasons why so many people want to make hand or foot castings is as an attempt to permanently capture a moment in time that disappears almost as quickly as it is immortalised in patinated bronze.

Everything from the handprint of a newborn to the pawprint of a puppy is captured in intricate detail, immortalising moments we only ever get to experience once.

However, the nature of patina, the blue-green surface layer that coats a bronze structure, creates a living memory, one that will change and develop over the years in the same way that its subject will.

It is very evocative of the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi (literally “the subdued beauty of rustic patina), a mindset that appreciates imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness not in spite of these qualities but because of them.

The hand of a newborn cast in bronze is inherently all of the above: 

• Every crease, kink and line is a perfect imperfection.

• Your newborn’s hand will have grown, the lines will have changed, and they may not be in the same identical position again.

• Your newborn’s story is incomplete; they will keep growing, keep changing and keep weaving their own personal story.

A core philosophical tenet of wabi-sabi is that change adds to the appeal and beauty of something or someone. It is not a defiance of time but a celebration of it, and a realisation that something beautiful remains that way no matter how much it changes.

Arts and crafts inspired by wabi-sabi are distinctly rustic, and often emerge as a contrast to cleaner, more conventional materials such as coloured glass or plaster, or brighter metals such as gold and nickel plating.

A cast can not only give you a link to your past but also keep you grounded in the moment and looking towards the future, finding peace with the waves and movements of life.