A mounted rider in bronze in the studio, below a wall of show ribbons and press

Inside the studio

From idea to
enduring bronze.

The studio sits outside Buffalo, Wyoming. Every monument and every edition starts here.

Sculpture detail from The Vision

The process

Five stages,
every time.

Research, armature, clay, mold, foundry, patina, transportation, installation, and dedication — the sequence rarely changes, and the studio photographs below follow it.

  1. 01
    The story
    Research first — the people, the event, the animal, the country it happened in.
  2. 02
    The clay
    An armature, then clay, worked until the gesture is right.
  3. 03
    The mold
    Rubber molds taken from the finished clay.
  4. 04
    The bronze
    Foundry casting, chasing, welding, and patina.
  5. 05
    The installation
    Transport, siting, and dedication — where a monument becomes public.

Photography already held in the site archive. Captions, dates, and the work in progress in each frame still need to be identified with the artist.

Keep exploring.

Each area of the archive opens into the others — by subject, by place, and by time.

Western bronze sculpture by D. Michael Thomas

Commissions & inquiries

Stories built
to outlive us.

Monument commissions, available editions, and exhibition enquiries all begin with a conversation.

Start an inquiry