Saint Sebastian

A sculpture depicting the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian for my university Final Major Project. 

This piece reflects my interest in art featuring religious imagery, and was inspired by the traditional visually striking depiction of Saint Sebastian tied to a tree and peppered with arrows.

I explored a variety of traditional metalworking crafts and techniques in this project including blacksmithing, chasing, repoussé and toolmaking. I also arranged a visit to a blacksmith’s workshop to make some mokume-gane and learn techniques for forging steel.

Using a clay sculpt I made as a reference piece, the figure was formed from pieces of thin sheet brass shaped using a variety of hammers and handmade tools. The individual brass pieces were then silver soldered together. Fragments of copper and nickel silver mokume-gane were used to give a flesh-like appearance to the saint’s wounds. The tree was made from steel rod which I forged into branch shapes and MIG welded together.