Bronze The Doge Progress

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Henlo lovers of all things Doge & metal alloys & plinths!

Here’s an update from The Statue Collective™ re our mission to build a bronze Kabosu in her home town of Sakura, Chiba. The Statue Collective is made up of Own The Doge, The Dogecoin Foundation, NFD, The Doge Pound and Rainbow Wallet, and is represented on Twitter as @BronzeTheDoge.

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We appreciate that things have been a bit quiet since we successfully raised $100k, so here is a bit of an insight into the discussions we’ve had, and are continuing to have. Please comment below and respond to our prompts if you want to join the conversation!

Firstly, we reached out to a number of bronze foundries around the world, learning about the process, from a clay maquette through to lost-wax casting, building armatures, and choosing a patina! (very learning)

We are now getting ready to engage one of the shortlisted suppliers, so it’s a pertinent time to get thots from our fam and those who donated to this most Dogely of causes.

We have been considering three suppliers in the USA, two in Australia and three in Japan.

As far as the budget goes, the $100k is currently broken down thusly:

60-70k for statue making (design, maquette, mold making, bronze cast, plinth, bronze name plate)

5-10k for transport and install (cost will vary depending on the chosen supplier’s location)

0-5k for a 3d scan of the maquette (depending on the supplier we choose, this could be included)

5-10k for ancillary park costs (benches, signs, things to beautify the immediate area)

10-20k as a donation to the park itself (this was a condition of our arrangement with Sakura City Council)

Atsuko has been with us through the process and is currently our liaison with Sakura City Council. She has informed us that the concept has changed slightly. What was once a statue of Kabosu in all her glory, is now to be a statue of Kabosu, plus Atsuko’s three cats! All four glorious animals can be found on her blog (https://kabochan.blog.jp/)

We are getting creative with the concept. We want Kabosu to have pride and place on a granite plinth, so that adoring fans can sit with her for a selfie. We think the cheeky cats could be playing or sleeping on nearby benches, so as to liven up the space, but not steal Kabo’s thunder.

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Our next steps are:

  1. Choose a Bronze Worker/Foundry to do the statue design, and deliver the final bronze pieces, and the granite plinth, and install everything for a much excite ribbon cutting.

  2. Provide an Artist Rendering of the statue in its planned home, to the Sakura City Council, for their final sign-off.

  3. Work with the bronze supplier to create a statue of memetic proportions.

Here are some questions we are currently asking. Please chime in with your thoughts!

  • What should the Doge be doing? Sitting, standing, jumping, microwaving a sweet potato? We have opted to aim for the stars: we want to see Kabosu in her famous pose, recreating the original meme image as closely as possible. Of course this means there will be some artistic license, as not all of her body is visible. It’s certainly the most WOW option though.

  • Initially, we were planning to create a horse-sized Kabosu. After further discussion, we determined that the Sakura City Council and Atsuko were more concerned with having the cats included, and feel that a smaller Kabosu would better suit the aesthetics of their park. How does sound?

  • What should the cats be doing? Lying on a bench? Popping out of the stone plinth? Preparing a sneak attack on Kabosu? Hanging from a blade of the famous windmill?

  • How should we activate this space? Water bowls built into the plinth for real life doggos to enjoy? A gazebo to stop the rain? Stepping stones, leading Pilgrims through the park to their holy destination?

We can’t wait to share designs and plans from this exciting journey in the coming months.

We appreciate the support of our greater Doge fam, as we strive to Do Only Good Everyday.

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ty ty ty for leading this, salad, and getting us organized. with atsuko saying this could happen for kabosu’s bday (nov 2) it is so important we keep up the momentum in order to best serve the doge community with this incredible opportunity to build a doge statue in her hometown in japan. again, ty.

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great updates! most of my input would need to see preliminary sketches/mock-ups of the statue and short list of sculptures that are being considered. lost wax imo is the best process for detail, but depends on what it looks like, ie if it has texture…or is it a smooth sculpture and a different process might be more cost effective. can’t really provide more than that without seeing anything

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I agree with Rachel here. Most people won’t be able to have much of an opinion until they start seeing sketches/specs. I understand some sculptors want to keep their designs confidential but we might have to solve for a middle ground when an initiative like this requires public involvement.

Perhaps we can show where we’re leaning on as a collective so people know we’ve done much more than the questions we’re asking suggests. I feel like we’re starting to know what foundrys, designs, specs we’d like to choose, but stopping short to make sure it’s inline with the Doge community. Either people will like the direction we’re going or provide feedback with their own suggestions.

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Doge sitting, laying down like in meme, or standing?

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gotta be like in the meme imo

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agreed. at the very least give Kabosu’s defining feature (round face).

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Laying down like in the meme. Let’s go for gold.

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100% understood.

It is hard to get a sketch/mockup before engaging a supplier for something like this. Firstly, a sketch is not guaranteed to look like the sculpt at all. They are two different skillsets, from two different creatives. So if we look at sketches and pick someone based on that, we are taking a risk. Secondly, without committing to engage a supplier, and while we are courting a number of suppliers, they are not necessarily excited to fight for the gig, going above and beyond to provide sketches and mockups without a contract. It’s a shame, but I think it’s the reality for these major bronze studios. They don’t need our contract, and aren’t going to pander to us if we ask too much.

What we can do is provide samples of previous work from the sculptors that our proposed suppliers work with.

Interestingly, the Japanese foundry that we have the strongest connection to doesn’t do lost wax casting. The two Australian ones do (with Japanese wax!)

We would be going for a realistic sculpt, with shiba inu fur texture.

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We received a mock up by that Japanese foundry, but we aren’t allowed to share it. It does look pretty much like the Doge, but it’s essentially a CAD file, and is not representative of the statue that they would produce.

As I’m sure you understand, there is an element of risk here. We have to pick one supplier (probably), and trust that they will deliver what we want. We can’t know until they have done it. We are doing as much due diligence as we can, and of course all the suppliers we’re talking to allow feedback throughout the process so we can check the maquette and the moulds, etc, to make sure it is going to come out how we want. But then when it is turned into bronze, it is going to look different to to the clay maquette and any digital file they create from a 3D scan.

At some point we have to take a leap of faith.

My personal preference, as someone who is project managing this, is to engage an Australian foundry, because I have visited them, I know I can communicate well with them, I know they get it, and I know they can deliver a high quality realistic dog sculpture. But that is a strong bias from me, and I know others have different opinions. I’d also love to engage a Japanese supplier, but as I’ve been organising the Pilgrimage, I have found it exceedingly difficult to communicate with Japanese organisations, and I fear that challenge could compromise our final product.

Thank you for you considered response :slight_smile:

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Looking forward to this update going live on other socials; Great work Salad!

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Chiming in on the space piece, would be really cool to have a dog bowl with circulating water. That way either dogs, cats or birds can drink out of it during high temps or just thirsty. :dog2::duck::cat2:

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def cool idea to have someone place something like that there - maybe we could buy one thats self cleaning and send to atsuko?

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