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LIFE BY LEXUS 32


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he thing about magic is that nobody’s sure whether it really exists. But a life filled with moments of synchronicity – and selected glimpses of the seemingly miraculous, like capturing a flower in bronze to last a


lifetime – make for a charmed existence. It was one of these synchronous moments that introduced sculptor Nic Bladen to making contemporary plant fossils cast in bronze. Some say they’re utterly charming; others are so enchanted by them and beguiled by their beauty that his work is fast becoming the collector’s item of the future. Nic’s foray into the highly-skilled craft of bronze-


casting got its nudge from the universe in a strange way. “Somehow the orchid fraternity got hold of me,” he says. It sounds like a plot twist in a floral conspiracy


novel, but this was perhaps the turning point in Nic’s career. From making a living creating jewellery, he was asked by the President of the local orchid society if he would cast a few whole orchids in bronze. A former dental technician, Nic had learnt about


bronze sculpture under the watchful eye of Otto du Plessis at Bronze Age before going on his own. He’d been struggling along when the orchid request came. “I cast a flower one day and that was it. Lightbulb moment. I’m casting at 0,3mm, but I’m also casting tree stumps. It’s a marriage of the disciplines.”


ANYTHING BUT BASIC BOTANICALS The orchid job successfully executed, the penny dropped about how beautiful organic matter casting can be and Nic embarked on a botanical path that’s


taken him to where he is today, exhibiting in the Everard Read Gallery in both London and across SA and with a workshop in a heritage building in Simon’s Town, along the Cape Peninsula’s southern side. It’s a quaint little coastal village in that at street


level its architecture, fish ’n chip shops and pubs are more reminiscent of Cornwall than of anything South African. The similarities end where the town hits the mountain slopes on which it’s built. Surrounded by the Cape fold mountains, the area’s covered in indigenous flora from proteas to buchu and thousands of other species in between, some common, others rare. This is Nic’s foraging ground. His process is relatively simple in concept, but difficult to get right. “I go for a walk, find a plant or get some cuttings,


legally. Then it starts with some very simple jewellery moulding practices. In normal jewellery, this would be a wax form, something you carved yourself or did in a mould. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Things that get in the way include ego and over-confidence. Whenever you think things are going well, a bus hits


1. Nic collecting plant matter in the Baskloof Fynbos Reserve, which is situated “over the mountain” from his studio on the coastal belt, above the small settlement of Scarborough. 2. Preparing a cast for a plant sculpture. The plants are attached to the base of the cast and the cylinder is then filled with plaster of Paris. 3. Pouring the liquid bronze into the cast.


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