Stratton Sculpture Studios makes waste molds for one-off plaster castings, plaster piece molds, molds for architectural restoration, and rubber molds of every scale on any original material: stone, water clay, plasticine, metal, plaster, wax, cement, terra-cotta, and found objects.

Requiring the highest level of skill and expertise, poured rubber molds are our speciality. Poured rubber molds are vastly superior to brush-up molds due to the perfect fit in the plaster mother mold, tight registration, and exact reproduction of surface detail. Rubber molds sections are separated with our recognizable zig-zag registration cut. Stratton Sculpture Studios has made hundreds of poured rubber molds of every scale, and frequently pours large work.

Examples of large, monolithic poured rubber molds are Clete Sheild’s 16' tall Vaquero Monument, Steve Layne's 10' Joe Frazier monument, and Hans Haacke's 14' tall Gift Horse. Examples of our large-scale plaster piece molds are Simone Leigh’s 16’ Brick House, and Stratton Sculpture Studios over-life-size Dressage Horse commission.

We make sculpture of every scale in our 11,000 square foot building in North East Philadelphia, where we can pour four-hundred-fifty-pounds of bronze in a single melt, lift two-ton sculptures, and assemble large-scale work up to 25’ in height.

What sets us apart is metal chasing, the craftsmanship of finishing the surface of bronze sculpture. We are respected sculptors, sensitive to large form and subtle details that can make the difference between a good or a great result.

Stratton Sculpture Studios have produced work for many individual sculptors and institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York High Line, Berman Museum, the ICA, the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, The Fabric Workshop, Newark Liberty Museum, Material Conservation Company, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Woodmere Art Museum, Kimmel Center, Paula Cooper Gallery, Jack Shainman Gallery, Luhring Augustine Gallery, Laurel Gitlen Gallery, Eleven Rivington Gallery, Anthony Meier Gallery, Tom Otterness, Simone Leigh, Janine Antoni, Sherrie Levine, Yoan Capote, and Matthew Barney.

Stratton Sculpture Studios offers a full range of approaches to modeling and enlarging, but what sets us apart is our dedication to traditional hand modeling in water clay. While we do work with digital enlargements, our traditional enlarging quotes are often less expensive and offer a quicker production schedule than digitally milled alternatives.

The most noticeable advantage with hand-modeling clay is the ability to alter the work mid-course, which can be especially important when scaling up work because larger scale can often unpredictably change the feeling of a sculpture.

The team of sculptors at Stratton Sculpture Studios can generate maquettes, drawings, digital models, armatures, rough-out sculptures, and finish modeling. Whether you are interested in meticulous attention in maintaining every detail of your model, or working with us in a more open-ended manner, our experience, space and materials are at your service. Some clients choose to use our space as their own large projects studio, creating new work at-scale, rather than enlarging from a pre-determined design.

The studios are housed in a dedicated building of 11,000 square feet, supported by a fully equipped metal fabrication shop for armatures of any scale, 6 tons of fine French water clay, and wonderful natural light. We commonly work in water clay, plasticine, wax and plaster. 

We have done modeling and enlarging work for sculptures exhibited by:

• Forth Plinth in London’s Trafalger Square

• Venice Biennial American Pavillion

• Guggenheim Museum

• Whitney Museum

• Philadelphia Art Museum

• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

• High Line Plinth

• Art Institute of Chicago

Stratton Sculpture Studios welded the steel armature for the clay model, made the poured rubber mold, and cast this monumental-size sculpture into bronze for artist Stephen Layne. 

In 2018 Stratton Sculpture Studios was selected to create Simone Leigh’s 16’ Brick House, the inaugural sculpture of New York’s High Line Plinth. In just ten months, we worked with the artist to redesign the maquette, build the armature, model the 16’ sculpture using 9000 pounds of French water clay, make a 100-piece mold, cast the bronze, assemble and metal finish the 6000 pound monument, and apply the final patina.

Brick House is on the High Line in New York at 30th Street and 10th Avenue through 2020.

CBS This Morning: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/artist-simone-leigh-finally-in-the-spotlight-reflects-on-her-naysayers/#x

New York Times article on the making of Brick House: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/arts/design/simone-leigh-sculpture-high-line.html

High Line article: https://www.thehighline.org/art/projects/simoneleigh/?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=art&utm_content=homepage

New York Times installation announcement: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/arts/design/high-line-simone-leigh-brick-house.html

Vogue Magazine: https://www.luhringaugustine.com/attachment/en/556d89b2cfaf3421548b4568/Press/5c9b96fa6cd850fd06499661

Cultured Magazine: https://www.luhringaugustine.com/attachment/en/556d89b2cfaf3421548b4568/Press/5cb755648cd750c55502f1f6

last photograph by Liz Ligon 2019

Han Haacke's 14' tall Gift Horse was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth on March 5, 2015 in front of London's National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Stratton Sculpture Studios was first contacted to model and cast the bronze maquette proposal. When Haacke received the award, Stratton Sculpture Studios designed and fabricated the steel armatures, created the clay model for the skeleton, and made the poured rubber molds on all the sections. Work was completed in less than six months.

Stratton Sculpture Studios provides patination, gilding, and restoration for fine art, architecture, public monuments and historical objects.

With twenty-five years of experience each, patinists Julia Stratton and Pavel Effremoff are professionally trained in both chemical patinas, painted surfaces and gilding. Stratton Sculpture Studios works with artists to create patinas on newly cast work, matches existing patina for repairs, gilds work in gold and platinum, and restores aging patinas and painted surfaces on sculpture, including large-scale public monuments.

Our patination, gilding, restoration and maintenance work includes the collections of the Venice Biennial, Lehigh University, Ursinus College, the New York High Line, the Newark Liberty Museum, Michener Museum, Curtis Institute of Music, the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the Philadelphia Zoo, and Grounds for Sculpture. 

Stratton Sculpture Studios has the facilities and experience to model, make molds, and create finished bronze castings of any size, from large gallery work to monumental outdoor sculpture.

Examples of our large scale work include:

• 25’ tall bronze Satelite, at the American Pavillion of the Venice Biennial

• 16’ Brick House for New York’s High Line Plinth

• 8’ Nymph and Bittern for the Philadelphia Museum of Art

• 14’ Gift Horse for London's Fourth Plinth

• 7’ Sentinel for the Guggenheim Museum

• 7’ Sticks for the 2019 Whitney Biennial

• 11’ Joe Frazier monument for Philadelphia’s Xfinity Center

• 12.5’ painted aluminum sculpture for the Woodmere Art Museum

• 9’ Voluntad de Poder bronze sculpture for Jack Shainman Gallery

Stratton Sculpture Studios models, makes molds, and creates finished bronze castings on a large variety of small works. No job is too small, and all work is given the time and attention to detail that distinguishes our work.

We are dedicated to producing only the highest-quality work, reflected in the exquisite surfaces and accurate reproduction in modeling, enlarging, molds, bronze casting and metal finishing.

Stratton Sculpture Studios works with artists, architects, conservationists, designers and museums.

Whether you are creating work purely for your own pleasure, or a significant public monument, we focus on your needs and the best possible solution for each project.