Puccini bust (Giacomo Puccini) in hardened plaster

A few years back, my wife was looking for a bust of her favorite composer for the piano, and we realized that nobody has made busts of composers since the days of Brahms and Wagner. Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and a few 19th century greats ---no one from the 20th century. As a sculptor and music afficionado, I felt it was my duty to start making the molds. The finished sculptures are all hand cast and finished. Resin casts are rotate-cast hollow, then concrete or plaster-filled, burnished with a dremel and steel wool, and then patina'd. Hydrocal (high-density plaster) casts are hand finished (mostly filling air holes and rebuilding ears, etc.) then varnished and/or given a paint patina.

The matchbook shown in the 3rd photo is from one of my books, published under the pen-name of H.Alan Tansson.