Caring for a Bronze Resin Garden Sculpture
If there is a build-up of dust, salt, soil or bird lime the sculpture can be washed with cold water using a big sponge, dishcloth, soft brush, old paintbrush or toothbrush, preferably not your own 😆
Little creatures think they are trees so do tend to make their homes in the deep texture so use your own judgment on how much to disturb them.
Over time the bronze powder in the resin will take on a natural patination because of rain water and sunlight.
You can just leave the bronze resin to do its own thing. It will eventually go a light blue, green, grey colour all over and then you don’t have to do anything.
How do I re wax a Bronze Resin Sculpture?
If you would like to keep it the polished bronze look to your sculpture then it’s good to clean and re wax it, maybe once a year, or every other year.
Choose a nice warm sunny day.
So the day before, you have washed it and it’s been drying in the sunshine or soft wind for the morning.
Now you want get your rubber gloves on, an old pinny and maybe an old dark coloured top ( it can be a bit splashy, but can be done gently as Graham is doing in the film_ insta clip to come ) Also if its on a stone floor or something precious then put some plastic or bits of old cardboard under the sculpture by tipping the sculpture and sliding it under, then the same on the other side.
Now you are going to apply a thin even coat of wax all over.
Tip some of the wax from the tub into an old jam jar with a lid, you can add a little bit of white spirit to it to ‘water’ it down but it’s not necessary, especially on a hot day as the wax will be more runny in the heat.
Apply the wax with a soft 1 or 2 inch natural bristle brush.
Be careful of the metal bit of the brush, the ferrule, you can wrap it with masking tape to avoid scratching the bronze resin if you are a bit gung ho.
Load the brush with wax and paint it on by dragging it backwards and forwards across the surface of the wax several times making sure it goes in the holes and deep textured bits.
If there is too much on there then wipe the excess off with a cloth, like a bit of old t shirt or dry dishcloth. As it dries just dab/stipple the surface to remove any brush marks. You may notice it pools in the low lying areas, you can drag the excess out of there and kind of keep spreading it about until it dries.
Keep going round the sculpture as it’s easy to miss dribbles. If the pesky brush marks or dribbles have dried hard then just get a bit of wax on the brush and re apply round the area persuading them to go and it will make them disappear. You can see me in action doing this on Instagram here.
Now leave it to dry for a few hours or next day and then you can use an old soft t shirt to polish the waxed surface.
Now congratulate yourself on a job well done.
If in doubt don’t worry, think of the sculpture as a piece of wooden furniture that you need to re wax every year.
This is the wax, if you are a nervous type then go for a lighter colour. I use dark oak as it gives the largest range in tones but the dribbles and brush marks show up more then the medium oak. But dont worry if you make a mess of it you can get it off again.
Liberon Black Bison Wax – Liberon is the brand name of the product, either the dark oak, medium oak or antique pine would work, https://restorate.co.uk/products/liberon-liquid-wax-polish-black-bison