Art 83ABCD, Bronze Casting, is a three-unit sculpting class that has been taught at El Camino since the early ‘70s.

Professor Russell McMillin teaches the course. McMillin has worked in bronze casting since his undergraduate career at Sonoma State University.

His students typically have three projects that demand a long process of sculpting a wax object, encasing the wax object in a ceramic shell, and burning out the wax in the foundry; the wax is stuccoed with sand many times throughout the process to give strength to the ceramic shell that must withstand a 115-degree mold and 2100-degree bronze. This process takes about four to eight weeks.

The purpose of these projects is to sharpen students’ sculpting and objectivity skills that can be used in industrial design, toy design and in casting aluminum.

Each spring semester, the class has an open house where its work is displayed in the Art Gallery.