Rare, Cold Cast Bisque - Hare Figurine (Classic Range) - Signed Ayers '78 - Hand Made in Dumfriesshire, Scotland retail

What an incredible Bunny!!

Hand Made and Hand Painted Cold Cast Bisque, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

By and for Border Fine Arts 1978.

Very realistic and amazing colors on this rare figurine/sculpture.

Measures 4 3/4" tall, 4 1/8" wide, and 3 7/8" deep.

Green felted bottom with original sticker of maker.

Signed on side of base by "Ayers '78 AVI"
Sculpted and painted by Ray Ayers.

Hare is sitting on grass, growing over some stones, with ears slightly back.

Indented haunches, very lifelike, scratched surface representing hair, black tipped ears, cute little face and nose.

The eyes are slightly shiny...showing yet another lifelike detail.

This piece was created with great care!

Perfect gift for the lover of rabbits!

A leading manufacturer of artistic, intricate figurines Border Fine Arts has established itself at the top of the market, retail with much of the company's success being down to the highly skilled sculptures that turn their visions into reality. It is also because of this company's long running success that Master Sculptor and designer, Ray Ayres is able to celebrate his 30th anniversary with Border Fine Arts.

Founded by John Hammond in 1974 Border Fine Arts is a company that has grown from strength to strength. Their innovative, realistic sculptures have proved a huge success since the company started and the demand is high from collectors.

John and Ray experiment with ideas and they came up with a process called cold casting, which is a white body similar to bisquet fired ceramic and it allows the figurines to be hand painted, thus making them more decorative and eye catching for the customers. Today Border Fine Arts is renowned for its realistic wildlife and countryside scenes. Both the “Classic” range made in Langholm, Scotland and the “Studio” range are filled with licensed character collectable figures and are very popular and highly sought after.

Ray Ayres' career started when he first joined Border Fine Arts in 1976 after he had graduated from Winchester School of Art with a BA Honors degree in sculpture and print. At this time there were only a few employees and Ray was taken onboard to do odd jobs. Ray explained to me that his duties included making the wooden plinths, helping with the mould making, casting and finishing of the cold cast bronzes but it wasn't long before he thought “I can do that!” and began working full time as a sculptor.

The first two pieces that Ray sculpted were of a rabbit and a (THIS HARE). Ray told a reporter that he remembered that the hare had great success and was well received with collectors. So, he continued to sculpt pieces throughout the 1970s. By the early 1980s cold cast bronze had been almost completely replaced by hand decorated resin pieces and retailers were becoming interested in the delightful figurines that Border Fine Arts produced.

The process to create each figurine starts with Ray coming up with an idea and then either working from digital photographs, or before technology progressed, sketching an idea on paper. The next step is to make it, “Maquettes” (3-D sketches) are created in order to see all the components that may be needed, then the components of the model are made in wax. This allows Ray to work out the shape and either scale it up or down in size. He then starts to sculpt either in clay, wax or plasticine. Once he is happy with the design, it is then moulded as a master pattern and the production cycle begins. A new sculpture master can take as long as 6 months to produce from scratch depending on the work involved and the intricacy of the piece, but it usually takes 8 to10 weeks of actual sculpting time, which would explain why each hand-crafted figurine is of the highest quality.