3D Printing Services

Kalispell Art Foundry offers professional FDM and SLA 3D printing services for artists and sculptors, with the capability to produce everything from miniature jewelry and highly detailed small sculptures to life-size figures and monumental works.

SLA printing provides exceptional resolution and fine surface detail, making it ideal for jewelry, intricate maquettes, small sculptures, and highly detailed sculptural elements. FDM printing allows us to efficiently produce larger models and full-scale sculptures, which can be printed in sections for assembly, sculptural finishing, mold making, or preparation for casting.

Using your existing digital files or models created through our 3D scanning and digital sculpting services, sculptures can be reproduced at their original dimensions, reduced for smaller editions, or enlarged to virtually any scale. A small maquette can become a life-size, larger-than-life, or monumental sculpture while maintaining the proportions and character of the original artwork.

Print for Mold Making or Print Directly for Casting

Our experience as a full-service bronze foundry allows us to approach 3D printing differently from a traditional printing service. We understand how the printed model will ultimately be used in the bronze casting process, allowing us to plan printing, sectioning, assembly, and finishing with the final bronze in mind.

Artists have two primary options depending on the needs of the project.

A model can be 3D printed as a master pattern for traditional mold making. A mold is then created from the printed sculpture, allowing waxes to be produced for a bronze edition using the traditional lost-wax casting process. This is an excellent choice when multiple bronze castings or future editions are planned.

For appropriate projects, we can also produce cast-ready 3D printed patterns that eliminate the need for a traditional mold and wax pattern. The expendable printed pattern can be prepared for investment and used directly in the casting process.

This streamlined workflow can take a sculpture from:

Digital Model → 3D Print → Investment → Bronze

rather than:

Digital Model → 3D Print → Mold → Wax → Investment → Bronze

By eliminating the mold-making and wax stages when they are not necessary, direct print-to-cast can save both time and money. It can be particularly beneficial for one-of-a-kind sculptures, custom commissions, prototypes, enlargements, and projects where a reusable production mold is not required.

For sculptures intended to be produced as an edition, traditional mold making may still be the better option because the mold allows additional wax patterns and bronze castings to be produced in the future. Our team can help determine which process makes the most sense based on the sculpture, size, detail, quantity, schedule, and budget.

From Digital File to Finished Bronze

Whether you need a single detailed print, an enlarged sculpting model, a master for mold making, or a cast-ready printed pattern, Kalispell Art Foundry can provide a complete production path.

From a piece that fits in the palm of your hand to a life-size or monumental public sculpture, our combination of 3D scanning, digital modeling, FDM and SLA printing, mold making, lost-wax casting, metal finishing, and patina gives artists the flexibility to choose the process that works best for their artwork.

Bring us your sculpture, maquette, scan, or digital file, and we'll help determine the most efficient path from your original artwork to finished bronze.