From clay to metal — two methods, one workshop.

The studio's foundation method is the same one that the Greeks and Romans used: lost-wax casting. Patience and silence.

The process begins with a clay model — the maquette — shaped by hand from sketches and references. Once the form is settled, a flexible mould is taken from it. A wax positive is then poured from that mould; the wax is reworked, refined, dressed with sprues and a feeding system, then encased in a heat-resistant ceramic shell.

The shell is fired in a kiln: the wax melts and runs out, leaving a hollow ceramic mould — the « lost wax ». Molten bronze, brought to about a thousand and one hundred degrees Celsius, is then poured into the empty cavity in a single uninterrupted operation. The shell is broken away. The bronze is cleaned, chased, polished, and finally patinated by the application of carefully chosen chemicals and flames.

For the Joan of Arc, a further step was added: the gilding of the entire surface in twenty-three-and-a-half-karat gold leaf, applied sheet by sheet.

For monumental work, the workshop has abandoned casting in favour of two complementary forming techniques — both new, both built in-house.

Computer-controlled press, in argon

The first technique uses a custom-built press whose pistons are driven by computer-controlled commands, shaping titanium sheets to programmed three-dimensional surfaces. The pressing chamber is flooded with argon: the inert atmosphere prevents the titanium from oxidising while it is at temperature, preserving its silver-white surface and its mechanical integrity.

The pressed panels are then assembled, plate by plate, on an internal steel skeleton. The reference is explicit: this is the structural method of the Statue of Liberty itself, scaled up and re-engineered.

Explosive hydroforming

Unveiled in the summer of 2025, this second technique is faster and more brutal. A titanium sheet is placed over a mould; the assembly is submerged in water; an underwater detonation propels the sheet into the mould at extreme velocity, taking its form in a single instant.

The studio describes the process as « the loudest sound ever heard » and frames it as the route to producing « thousands of titanic sculptures at industrial speed ».

The official claim on the studio's site is direct:

Costs reduced by a factor of ten, and production speed increased by a similar factor. — ateliermissor.com

The promise is that the methods of the next monumental sculpture — the one that lasts millions of years — will be cheaper, faster, and more repeatable than the methods of the last one.