There are many artistic styles for choose bronze sculptures, and when choosing, you should consider your creative taste and the style of the sculpture placement environment. Classical-style bronze sculptures typically present delicate details and realistic techniques, such as mythological figures from the Greek and Roman periods or romantic works from the 19th century. This bronze sculpture is suitable for traditional home or estate-style courtyard decoration and can add classical charm and cultural depth.
On the other hand, modern-style choose bronze sculptures are often more abstract, emphasizing the artistic expression of lines and forms. This type of sculpture is frequently used in modern architecture or garden design, which can complement the environment’s fashionable and minimalist style. Modern bronze sculptures typically have a unique visual impact, making them suitable for buyers pursuing personalized artistic experiences.
The themes of choose bronze sculptures can range from mythology, history, and religion to nature, ideas, and abstract forms. When choosing bronze sculpture based on interests, values, and the theme of the decorative space… For example, religious sculptures such as the bronze statue of Archangel St. Michael or Buddha statues are often used in meditation spaces or religious sites. Bronze sculptures with animal themes, such as lions or birds, are suitable for gardens, terraces, or villa courtyards. You can expand your mind and horizon.
Choosing bronze sculptures theme that matches your environment can not only enhance the decorative effect but also give the space a specific atmosphere and meaning.
The production process has a crucial impact on the final choose bronze sculpture quality. Aongking sculpture is usually made using the Lost Wax Casting method, an ancient technique that can present extremely fine details but also requires superb skills and experience. High-quality bronze sculptures have smooth surfaces and exquisite details, perfectly showcasing the chosen bronze sculpture’s correct intentions and emotions with you.
This suggests that you pay attention to the materials bronze or brass. The material determines the collection value of copper sculpture. Some vendors will confuse the definition to change the material used to make the bronze sculpture. The surface treatment details when choosing sculptures. In fact, after the surface treatment, we can not distinguish between brass and bronze materials. Before copper surface patina surface high-quality bronze sculptures typically have a natural purplish luster and layering, without obvious casting defects or bubbles. In recent years, the casting process of various suppliers has been very close, with the same smoothness of its lines, and surface treatment. You can judge the material level of a sculpture by uniformity of purplish color.
Patina or Paint can be used as a personalized and protective layer on the surface of the choose bronze sculpture. The surface treatment of bronze sculptures (Patina) and paint are not only a part of visual effects but also an important factor in the long-term preservation of bronze sculptures. The different oxidation processes and sculptures can present rich color variations, such as bronze, brown, green, or black. When choosing a surface, you can choose the appropriate color tone based on your personal preferences and the combination of the environment. To reflect the higher value of bronze sculpture, we recommend losing some personality and choosing a patina that is more suitable for bronze sculpture.
The size and weight of bronze sculptures may greatly affect their applicable scenarios. Small bronze sculptures are suitable for placement indoors, such as in living rooms, study rooms, or office spaces. They can be coordinated with furniture and other artworks to add an artistic touch to the space. Large sculptures are usually used in outdoor environments such as courtyards, public places, or parks, and can serve as focal points to showcase strong visual appeal. Mainly, the surface treatment of copper sculpture has requirements for indoor and outdoor, too.
When selecting bronze sculptures for a specific space, size is a crucial consideration factor. A sculpture that is too small may not attract enough attention in a large space, while a sculpture that is too large may make the space appear cramped. Sellers usually provide customized choices based on customer needs to help you find sculptures that are in proportion to the environment.
Aongking suggests that you measure the intended location for placing the sculpture before purchasing, and communicate with us about the size requirements of the sculpture to ensure that it achieves the best visual and practical effects.
The price of bronze sculptures varies depending on their size, craftsmanship complexity, and the artist’s reputation. Small sculptures are usually more affordable, while large, complex, or bronze sculptures by renowned artists may require a higher budget. When choosing a sculpture, you can set a reasonable budget based on your financial situation and consult Aongking for professional price advice.
Bronze sculptures are not just works of art, they also have high collection and investment value. Due to bronze being a durable metal, bronze sculptures can withstand the test of time and maintain their artistic value. Especially sculptures created or produced in limited quantities by well-known artists often have high appreciation potential in the art market.
Aongking suggests that you not only consider your decoration needs but also choose bronze sculptures from the perspective of long-term collection and investment. By consulting with market trends and art collection experts, you can find a sculpture that is both beautiful and has the potential for appreciation.
For many customers, customized bronze sculptures are the ideal choice to showcase their style and taste. Aongking can customize sculptures according to your needs, including portraits, animal sculptures, or abstract art pieces. Customized sculptures not only provide you with unique artwork but also enhance their specificity and personal significance.
When customizing sculptures, you can maintain close communication with Aongking to ensure that the design concept and craftsmanship details accurately express your needs. Usually, the customization process includes design sketches, mold making, bronze casting, and surface treatment, each step of which affects the final effect of the sculpture. Aongking has extensive experience and exquisite craftsmanship to ensure the quality and value of sculptures.
1. Type of Plaque: When most people think of dedication or memorial plaques they think of those that have a dark background, raised bronze letters, and mounted to a stone or brick wall. This type of plaque is the classic Bronze Plaque. Even though this type of plaque is the most common you should know that there are other types that may be better suited for your application. You can trust that we will always guide you with the best option for your scenario.
Other Types of Plaques:
Aluminum | Flash Bronze Aluminum | Etched Bronze | Etched Stainless Steel | Tooled Brass | Photo Plaques
So, you do have options. The cost for plaques is solely based on the overall size, or if you need an attached logo or photo on the plaque. The bigger the plaque the higher the cost. The amount of lettering usually does not impact the cost. Cast Bronze Plaques are usually the most expensive option. If you have a limited budget, you either should aim for a smaller plaque, or an alternative material, such as a Cast Aluminum Plaque. The biggest differences between aluminum and bronze plaques are the letter color, which would be either silver for aluminum or gold for bronze, as well as the weight, since aluminum is much lighter than bronze. The final installation location may also help determine between aluminum and bronze. If you are installing a plaque on gray granite, you may want to go with an aluminum plaque to match the color palette, for example.
For those looking for a bronze plaque, but not the cost, there is another option – Flash Bronze Aluminum Plaques. These plaques are aluminum but are painted to look like bronze. To the naked eye, you can not tell. The only drawback to these plaques is that they are not suitable for outdoor use.
Here is an example of a Flash Bronze Aluminum Plaque
It is not uncommon for customers to submit an order for a small plaque and request either a lot of text or an intricate logo. The reason for this guide is to help the customers understand the limitations of metal plaques. We stick to strict guidelines when it comes to cast or tooled plaques since if the lines are too small or thin, they will simply not hold up and we never want to produce a product that will fail.
In cases when a customer must have a detailed logo or image, or needs a lot of small text, we would offer an Etched Plaque. Etched Plaques can be made out of Bronze, Aluminum, Brass, Copper, or Stainless Steel. With etched plaques, the process begins with solid piece of metal at a couple of thickness options. Most materials offer thicknesses in 1/16″, 1/8″, and 1/4″. So, for a comparable etched bronze plaque to be similar to a cast bronze plaque, we would start with a 1/4″ piece of bronze, and then etch into the metal the letters, logo, or photo. The biggest difference to cast plaques is that etched plaques have a reversed appearance. Instead of a dark background with raised bronze letters, the plaque would instead have a bronze background with recessed dark letters.
Here is an example of an Etched Bronze Plaque In cases where a customer wants an intricate logo, such a state seal, but demands to have a cast or tooled bronze plaque, we provide the option of creating the logo or seal out of etched bronze and mounting it into the cast plaque. The final product is seamless and comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Here is an example of a cast plaque with an etched insert
If you are looking to incorporate a photo onto a plaque then you do have a couple of options. Which one you ultimately choose will be based on the quality of the photo and your budget.
BAS Relief Photo Plaque
BAS Relief photo plaques are the most expensive option. We utilize artists who will sculpt into clay the person’s image from a photograph. Once you approve the sculpted proof, it is then cast and attached the plaque. Please be aware, that the sculpting and proofing process for the BAS Relief photo plaque can take at least six weeks.
Starting Price for just the BAS Relief: $1,905.00
Flat Relief Photo Plaque
Flat Relief photos uses a technique that captures certain elements of a photo to reproduce the person’s likeness into a 2D format. This type of photo option requires a high resolution photo with good contrast. Customers should be aware that the flattening of a photo will impact the final result compared to the original photo. You can see with this example in comparison to the BAS Relief, that this process may lose some of the character of the photo.
Starting Price for a Flat Relief Photo: $443.00
PhotoRelief Plaque
PhotoRelief plaques utilizes a special process that allows you to use photo or photos to create a plaque that also has integrated text. The relief of the photo is not very much, but enough to provide a likeness that and photo option that is affordable and great looking.
There is no additional cost for a photo on these plaques since the entire plaque is priced as one piece including a photo.
An 8″ x 12″ Bronze Plaque begins at $720.00
Etched Photo Insert Plaque
Etched Insert Photo Plaques is probably the most common way to insert a photo on a plaque. This method begins with a photo that is then used to create an etched photo. This process utilizes a similar technique to how newspapers print photos – using lots of tiny dots to create shades. Instead of ink though, this process uses acid to etch into the metal which provides a realistic version of the photo used.
We will alter the photo to remove the background and to enhance the picture for the process. We do recommend a high quality photo, and one that has good contrast to provide the best result.
Overall, for the quality and ability to attach a photo, the cost to product ratio is excellent.
Price to include an etched photo: $449.00
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Huagong Zhenpin.
UV Printed Photo Plaque
For the truest reproduction of a photo we offer a UV Printed picture option. This process uses a special UV ink to print the photo directly onto the plaque. This is one of the least expensive photo options and also one of the most lenient when it comes to photo quality. Even though the process uses UV cured ink, this type of print will fade if placed in the direct sun. This process does come with a ten year guarantee; however, it is usually best suited for either indoor usage or outside if in a shaded or sun protected area.
Price for a UV Photo: $90.00
Cast Plaques and Tooled Plaques
There are very few differences between the final product of either a cast plaque or a tooled plaque. With Cast Plaques, the design proof is made into a mold which is then pressed into compact sand in a special frame. That frame is then closed and molten bronze is poured into the mold. Once cooled, the mold of sand is broken apart revealing a plaque, which is then sanded, painted, and sealed.
With Tooled Plaques, the process begins with a solid piece of bronze. The proof is used to send information to a machine that carves away the background of the plaque leaving behind raised letters. The plaque is then painted and sealed. To the naked eye, the plaques are near identical. The benefit of tooled plaques are: Square border edges, Square letter edges, Possibility of slightly more details, and Faster processing time.
Thin Gauged Plaques: In those instances that you need a plaque that is thinner than normal, such as placing one on a park bench, your only option would be a tooled plaque. As long as the plaque is installed on a solid surface, there is no reason not to choose a thin gauged plaque for certain scenarios.
We utilize BOTH processes depending on the scenario. If for some reason, you MUST have cast or tooled, please let us know.
Our number one question! Precision Tooled Plaques usually take the least amount of time. Depending on work load that can be 10 – 15 business days. Regular cast plaques usually take 15 – 20 business days. Plaques that involve photos usually take about 20 – 25 business days, and in case of BAS Relief Photos that can take 30 business days.
Business days are considered Monday – Friday and excludes holidays.
Production time does not include proofing time between us and the customer. Once your payment is made and all proofing has been complete the plaque will be submitted to production. There is also some behind the scenes going on too. This behind the scenes is an internal proofing process between the graphic design proof and the production proof. Although the customer does not see the production proof, this is something that is done and usually takes a day or two to complete. In the rare event that the production team rejects a graphic proof, for reasons such as too small of text or other graphic issues, we may have to send a revised proof to the customer.
In any event, we never recommend planning an event surrounding the arrival of a bronze plaque by a given date if that event is less than 45 days away. Even though we may provide an estimated shipping date, that does not take in account for the rare failed casting or other production issues. Sometimes the production of a plaque will result in a bad casting, or other quality assurance issue, and the plaque has to be remade. This of course may add some time.
What about rush orders? Unfortunately, due to the process of creating a cast or tooled plaque, we do not offer a rush option. Our plaque foundries are working overtime year round to fulfill customers throughout the United States and that is a LOT of plaques.
2. Size of Plaque: There are usually a couple of factors that determine what size plaque you need. The first is the available space. If you need to install your metal plaque on a predefined area, such as a rock, then you don’t have a lot of flexibility on a bigger size. That being said, if you have a limit on your plaque size then you should be aware that the amount of text is also limited. The smallest letter possible on a cast plaque is .25″ if all the letters are uppercase. If you must have both upper and lowercase letters, then the minimum font height is .375″ You should also realize that there are spacing requirements between letters and lines too, and the available space for text on a plaque is usually less than you imagine.
If space is not an issue, then the only thing that restricts the size of the plaque is the amount of text and your budget. Plaques are priced by the overall size and can quickly become very expensive even by just adding a few inches in the width or height of a plaque.
3. Background Color:
Black is the default color for bronze and aluminum plaques. The color you choose is just preference and they all will look beautiful. These four colors are not your only option though. If you are looking for another color, such as red, blue, green, white, or any other, please let us know. We offer many stock colors and only a nominal fee for color match.
4. Texture:
Stipple is our default texture. Again, this is just preference. Leatherette backgrounds usually look good when you have a large plaque with lots of background showing. The Pebble background is a bit more prominent of a texture while sand is more consistent and fine.
5. Clear Coat:
Satin is our default clear coat finish. Think of these four options as you would for paint. Satin provides a touch of gloss and sheen, but will not be overly shiny. Gloss provides a high sheen finish, followed closely by Semi-Gloss. For those looking for a muted look, and sometimes a more pronounced artistic touch, you should consider Matte.
6. Finish:
The majority of plaques are finished with a brushed look. In those instances that you are looking for a bright, shiny, and polished look, we do offer a polished finish. This incurs a 50% markup fee and we suggest using a gloss finish to maximize the effect. You simply would not want to pay for a polished plaque and then finish it with a matte finish.
7. Border:
While Single Line and Double Line are the most popular, other borders, such as No Border, and any of the borders with bevels are also commonly used. The Inset borders seem to be mostly used on etched plaques. There is no best choice with most borders being chosen based on customer preference, trying to match other plaques in the area, or text space requirements. If you are limited on plaque space and have lots of text, you may want to consider either a single line border or no border at all.
For an additional fee, you may also choose from a more decorative boarder such as:
8. Mounting:
If you are looking for a permanent installation without visible hardware then Blind Mount is what you want. With this method there are posts screwed into the back of the plaque which will go into drilled holes filled with epoxy.
If you would like to use screws to attach your plaque, and you are attaching it to a solid surface, such as granite or brick, then you should use the Solid Wall Mount option.
For those installations requiring wall anchors, such as drywall and hollow cinderblock, then you should opt for Hollow Wall Mount.
Wood Mount is of course for mounting plaques to wood and other surfaces where you will be using traditional wood screws.
Stake Mount is for mounting plaques in front of trees or in gardens. The stakes are long enough to push into the ground and letting the plaque sit just above the ground or a bit higher depending on how long of a stake you buy. Stake Mounts are not overly strong, so they are not suggested for large plaques. You should also be aware of the ease of theft or vandalism with these types of mounts.
Post Mount is a very strong option and permanent installation, since they are meant to be concreted into the ground. These post mounts allow for the plaque to be displayed either vertically or at a 45 degree angle.
9. Rosettes:
Rosettes mostly serve as a decorative way to hide the hardware used to attached the plaque to the surface. In blind mount application, there is no visible hardware so there is no need for a rosette. Most rosettes are glued in place over the screws using silicone. The R-5 rosettes utilizes the wood screws to go through the center hole to attach the plaque to the wall. Some rosettes come in sizes too large for small plaques. The R-7 rosettes has one size, which is 1 inch tall.
10. Fonts & Design:
Metal plaques usually use only a handful of basic fonts, such as Arial, Helvetica and Times Roman for example; however, we can usually use any font as long as the stroke thickness is not too thin. We are happy to design a plaque for you, but we also welcome customer’s designs as long as they meet the guidelines outlined above.
Are Proofs Free? Yes and No. We are happy to offer free proofs for most jobs. In cases where the proof involves long lists of name, or is overly complicated, we may require either the plaque to be paid for first, or a small deposit. We do our best to provide our customers an easy process, and we understand that free proofs help that along. What we would like to avoid is for customers to request proofs and renditions and then go to another company using the very proofs we designed. In order for us to provide this free proof service, we require our customers to have some level of knowledge that there is a lot of work involved in creating proofs. We certainly can not stay in business if we never get paid for the work we do. So, we appreciate that there are other companies who provide similar services, and that our customers have a choice, but we just ask not to abuse this service and at the very least be upfront with us in the beginning that you are shopping around.
Final Thoughts
We certainly hope that this bronze plaque buyer’s guide has been informative and useful. But even with all of this information, we understand that there will still be questions. So, please, if you are unsure about the process, or have questions, simply give us a call or send us an . We will be happy to discuss your project with you.
Are you interested in learning more about Bronze Relief Sculpture? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!