The Process
1- THE CONCEPT/IDEA Choosing your subject is the first step. Our design team will help you design a statue that is right for your needs. We like to work with you to come up with an original idea that you can call your own. Being involved in the design process is one of the reasons so many clients choose our company. We want to make you happy.

2- PRELIMINARY DRAWINGS Once we have a concept, we start to design your statue using various drawings. You are welcome to submit your own drawings if you have a specific design that you feel comfortable with. We like to get the idea down on paper to give us a good prospective of what we are about to create in clay.

3- THE MODEL A 14 inch model of your statue will be created to visualize your design in 3-d. If there is something you don't like or want to change you just let us know and we fix it to your liking. Upon your approval the model will be molded and used as a guide line in the production of your big statue. This works to your advantage in two ways. First you know what your statue will look and you can use the model as an award or to give as gifts and perhaps even as a marketing tool.

4- CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARMATURE The constrution of the armature is one of the many important steps in the making of your statue. A steel frame is constructed and foam is added to create a rough outline of your statue.The amature is then sealed with a latex coating and the sculpture process is ready to begin.

5- THE SCULPTING PROCESS Once the armature is completed we start the sculpting process.By hand we apply hundreds of pounds of hot clay. Needless to say this is a very time consuming process, sometimes taking several weeks to coat the whole statue and to complete the "block in" stage. With the clay applied we start putting in the detail and your statue starts to take shape.Adding and subtracting clay to get the perfect look is art and it takes time and many man hours to get that look. We spend hundreds of hours on every project during this process to insure that your statue is one that will make you proud.

6- Utah's 'Grizzly' image takes shape By Rebecca Walsh From The Associated Press

Using a wooden dowel, Bawden painstakingly textures the 800 pounds of soft cream-colored clay to look like coarse tufts of hair. West Valley City leaders, on their first field trip to see the statue, couldn't help themselves: the just had to touch the bear, too.

"It's so lifelike," murmured Mayor Gearld Wright, stroking the clay.
The clay model for West Valley City's first piece of public art rendered its official patrons giddy. Councilman Russ Brooks tried to figure out if the bear was a male or female, then decided there was too much clay hair to tell. And Councilman Leland DeLange wedged his head under one upraised clay paw in a simulated horrible ursine strangulation while City Manager John Patterson snapped pictures from every angle.

A final, bronze version of the sculpture - known for now as "The Grizzly Statue" - will grace the foyer of the city's 10,500-seat Olympic Hockey Arena when it opens in September 1997 for the Utah Grizzlies hockey season.

In its current home in the garage of a body shop tucked away on a Provo side street, the 9-foot grizzly looks rather out of place, surrounded as it is by car parts and religious statuary.

For more than 8 years, Bawden and four other sculptors have been squeezing clay onto a plywood and foam frame. They will smooth the bear, piece by piece. A mold will be made in a month. In six to eight months, the bear will be cast in bronze at a foundry. When complete, the statue will weigh 1,300 pounds.

Compared to other public art pieces, such as those in front of the Delta Center and in Gallivan Utah Center Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City, the grizzly at $64,000 is relatively modest in price. "Asteroid Landing Softly," the abstract sandstone and chrome sculpture at the Gallivan Center, cost $200,000. The three metallic figures at the Delta Center's entrance were $90,000.

Originally known as a Western wildlife sculptor, Bawden has studied bears all his life, creating several sculpted versions including mothers and cubs, black bears and grizzlies.

It was his idea that the city should commission the bear sculpture for the hockey arena.

"This is the awesome, aggressive, intimidating bear," he said, scratching his curly brown beard. "I've never really seen a formidable bear in attack mode. But this is my image of it."

Molds are being prepared from a 14-inch model. The city will sell plaster and bronze replicas to wildlife and sports enthusiasts for $250 to $1,000 to defray the cost of the monster original.