Brothers' Success Is Cast In Bronze
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Monday, April 15, 2002
By Jon Hahn
Columnist
SULTAN -- One of the best-kept secrets in this Cascades foothills town isn't the bakery -- everyone who travels state Route 2 knows that's good -- but few know about the fine sculpture produced at the little foundry on Main Street.
Most folks would figure the closest thing to sculpture hereabouts would be a hunking piece of chain saw art outside the local saw shop. But Northwest Artworks is as far from that assumption as Main Street is off the main drag.
Hundreds of fine cast-bronze sculptures are produced every year here, "but things have sort of slowed down. We feel the economic slowdown just like everyone else, maybe even worse," lamented Todd Pettelle, co-founding owner.
The first time I visited, the crew was putting the finishing touches on a pair of 7-foot bronze mermaids for a Mexican resort, and you know something like that isn't going to roll off a production line and retail for $195.
But the smaller production pieces -- incentive awards for large corporations and professional merit-award statuettes -- are what's keeping this 6,000-square-foot shop running, Todd concedes. Those, and the educational programs for teachers and students throughout Snohomish County. "A large part of what we do is educate people about the casting process," Todd said. "So many people, including artists and even sculptors, don't know what must go into this process."
It was all an education for Todd and his brother, Kevin, a professional artist, when they launched the business with their father, Edwin, a Seattle Times marketing and promotions official, back in the mid-1980s. "I wasn't long out of the military and in a sales job I didn't really like, and my brother was just getting into sculpture," Todd said. "So we apprenticed at a small foundry and studied for two years at the Pratt Fine Arts Institute in Seattle, and we began building this place, and the business, from the ground up. Our first building was only 2,000 square feet, and this is our third expansion," he said, moving his arm in an arc across the newest, two-story portion of the complex.
The original pieces can be in almost any medium, but lost-wax bronze sculpture requires various production steps including, of course, a special environmentally friendly wax, a refractory ceramic and the bronze. The artists are required to be in the foundry for on-site decisions and approval at various stages in the casting process, Todd said.
His brother's success as an artist eventually led to his transferring his business interest to Todd, but Kevin and a nucleus of other Pacific Northwest artists channel a sustaining flow of casting work through the foundry. Finished works from the Sultan shop are shipped as far away as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Thailand.
Some pieces, such as the several life-size horses destined for a corporate ranch in Colorado, or the Coast Guard Memorial now at La Push (and created by Kevin), or that pair of mermaids for the Mexican resort, are done in sections that must be welded, burnished and given an "instant-aging" patina by spraying with acids and other chemicals before a final waxing.
The Fishermen's Memorial at Bellingham and the Tacoma Firefighters Memorial are other examples of sculptures cast at Northwest Artworks. For a time several years ago, the foundry was producing monumental and smaller production pieces simultaneously, requiring twice the production crew and what seemed like around-the-clock schedules. "We were making money, but that's when I found out I didn't want to run a really big foundry business," Todd said. Even so, between the castings that require several processes and the various educational programs that bring teachers and students into the foundry and adjacent studio, the shop is usually lighted and humming seven days a week.
The half-dozen workers here are all highly trained for various aspects of the casting, but they also are cross-trained, Todd said, because the work often requires many hands for many hours. "Once a pour is ready, it has to go non-stop and at a very specific rate," Todd explained.
This small foundry heats bronze ingots from Canada that are transformed to molten metal at 1,900 to 2,250 degrees. Experience has taught them what kinds of pieces require casting at certain temperatures and pour rates, and how to avoid production problems, Todd said.
Even so, there is always an upward learning curve in this centuries-old process. "I went back to school to learn glass and ceramic casting, and even when I'm teaching that to, say, some classroom teachers, there's always a chance of making a mistake" Todd said as he hefted a crazed glass sculpture as an example.
"The reward from the teaching is after you've gone step by step with them through the entire process, and you see them suddenly brighten up with the realization of what they've been able to create and how they understand the process. That makes me appreciate what I do even more."
Monday, April 15, 2002
By Jon Hahn
Columnist
SULTAN -- One of the best-kept secrets in this Cascades foothills town isn't the bakery -- everyone who travels state Route 2 knows that's good -- but few know about the fine sculpture produced at the little foundry on Main Street.
Most folks would figure the closest thing to sculpture hereabouts would be a hunking piece of chain saw art outside the local saw shop. But Northwest Artworks is as far from that assumption as Main Street is off the main drag.
Hundreds of fine cast-bronze sculptures are produced every year here, "but things have sort of slowed down. We feel the economic slowdown just like everyone else, maybe even worse," lamented Todd Pettelle, co-founding owner.
The first time I visited, the crew was putting the finishing touches on a pair of 7-foot bronze mermaids for a Mexican resort, and you know something like that isn't going to roll off a production line and retail for $195.
But the smaller production pieces -- incentive awards for large corporations and professional merit-award statuettes -- are what's keeping this 6,000-square-foot shop running, Todd concedes. Those, and the educational programs for teachers and students throughout Snohomish County. "A large part of what we do is educate people about the casting process," Todd said. "So many people, including artists and even sculptors, don't know what must go into this process."
It was all an education for Todd and his brother, Kevin, a professional artist, when they launched the business with their father, Edwin, a Seattle Times marketing and promotions official, back in the mid-1980s. "I wasn't long out of the military and in a sales job I didn't really like, and my brother was just getting into sculpture," Todd said. "So we apprenticed at a small foundry and studied for two years at the Pratt Fine Arts Institute in Seattle, and we began building this place, and the business, from the ground up. Our first building was only 2,000 square feet, and this is our third expansion," he said, moving his arm in an arc across the newest, two-story portion of the complex.
The original pieces can be in almost any medium, but lost-wax bronze sculpture requires various production steps including, of course, a special environmentally friendly wax, a refractory ceramic and the bronze. The artists are required to be in the foundry for on-site decisions and approval at various stages in the casting process, Todd said.
His brother's success as an artist eventually led to his transferring his business interest to Todd, but Kevin and a nucleus of other Pacific Northwest artists channel a sustaining flow of casting work through the foundry. Finished works from the Sultan shop are shipped as far away as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Thailand.
Some pieces, such as the several life-size horses destined for a corporate ranch in Colorado, or the Coast Guard Memorial now at La Push (and created by Kevin), or that pair of mermaids for the Mexican resort, are done in sections that must be welded, burnished and given an "instant-aging" patina by spraying with acids and other chemicals before a final waxing.
The Fishermen's Memorial at Bellingham and the Tacoma Firefighters Memorial are other examples of sculptures cast at Northwest Artworks. For a time several years ago, the foundry was producing monumental and smaller production pieces simultaneously, requiring twice the production crew and what seemed like around-the-clock schedules. "We were making money, but that's when I found out I didn't want to run a really big foundry business," Todd said. Even so, between the castings that require several processes and the various educational programs that bring teachers and students into the foundry and adjacent studio, the shop is usually lighted and humming seven days a week.
The half-dozen workers here are all highly trained for various aspects of the casting, but they also are cross-trained, Todd said, because the work often requires many hands for many hours. "Once a pour is ready, it has to go non-stop and at a very specific rate," Todd explained.
This small foundry heats bronze ingots from Canada that are transformed to molten metal at 1,900 to 2,250 degrees. Experience has taught them what kinds of pieces require casting at certain temperatures and pour rates, and how to avoid production problems, Todd said.
Even so, there is always an upward learning curve in this centuries-old process. "I went back to school to learn glass and ceramic casting, and even when I'm teaching that to, say, some classroom teachers, there's always a chance of making a mistake" Todd said as he hefted a crazed glass sculpture as an example.
"The reward from the teaching is after you've gone step by step with them through the entire process, and you see them suddenly brighten up with the realization of what they've been able to create and how they understand the process. That makes me appreciate what I do even more."