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[Smirfwit]

How do you guys picture your dorfs forging metal statues? What exactly are they doing in that little Forge? How do you go from chunks of ore to elves in the fetal position?

 I personally picture Urist Mcsmith fitting together plates of the material, gold maybe, into the shape of whatever the sculpture depicts. Obviously with craftdorfy ways of making the seams and joins unobtrusive, possibly with more skill as the dorf gains experience.This seems a bit more practical to me than having to create molds for everything perhaps, but I'm sure there are alternate ways of doing the sculpting.

TL ; DR
Find your imaginings of how dwarves forge metal statues, and give them to me.

[Mrhappyface]

They eat the bars and flaming coke, and poop stuff out.

[Corai]

I see my dwarves closing my eyes, and going into a variant of the marital trance, forcing the stone/wood/whatever to bend to what it needs. As they draw more on the power, they gain more control, making better items.

[Kofthefens]

I imagine them throwing a chink of gold really hard against the wall a few times.

Urist McMetalworker - "Hey, this looks kinda like some sort of mutated walrus or something."
Urist McOtherMetalworker - "Yeah, that'll be fine. We can just say it's an abstract piece. But you should probably glue a few metal scraps on first so the mayor thinks it's good."

[zach123b]

i kind of imagine something like a layered cake, working there way up in layers then sort of weld it all together when they're done

[crazysheep]

I see my dwarves closing my eyes, and going into a variant of the marital trance...

Does that involve the metalcrafter spreading his spores all over the bar of whatever?

Also, sigging this. Epic typo is hilarious, Corai

EDIT: also noticed that you said "dwarves closing my eyes" D:

[Moonshadow101]

Let's see... I took an Art History class a few years ago... I think the famous ancient Greek method goes like this:

You make a slightly smaller version of the statue in something that's much easier to craft, like stone or clay. They you apply a layer of wax. Then you put a hard layer of material over the wax to form a sort of outer skin. You have to poke some holes in it to let out pressure or something.

Then you heat up the whole structure to melt the wax, and pour molten metal in between the "core" and the "outer skin." When the metal cools, you chip away the outer skin, and then reach up through a hole in the bottom to break down the core and clean that out as well. What remains is a nearly perfect hollow statue.

[GhostDwemer]

Let's see... I took an Art History class a few years ago... I think the famous ancient Greek method goes like this:

You make a slightly smaller version of the statue in something that's much easier to craft, like stone or clay. They you apply a layer of wax. Then you put a hard layer of material over the wax to form a sort of outer skin. You have to poke some holes in it to let out pressure or something.

Then you heat up the whole structure to melt the wax, and pour molten metal in between the "core" and the "outer skin." When the metal cools, you chip away the outer skin, and then reach up through a hole in the bottom to break down the core and clean that out as well. What remains is a nearly perfect hollow statue.

The lost wax method was always how I pictured it too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_wax_method

I mean, that has been the most common method of making metal statues for thousands of years.

[peskyninja]

I imagine them using their beards as some sort of tentacles.

[Loud Whispers]

They place the metal bar onto the anvil in the workshop. They then set the anvil on fire, picking up the workshop and using it to hammer the bar into any shape they fancy.

[Girlinhat]

You take a slip of paper, and write on it, and then tape it onto the rock.  It's a sheet of paper with a description, a sticky-note on a boulder that says what it's supposed to look like.  Statue gardens are nothing more than a pile of rubble with some scraps of paper tacked on.

More realistically, they take a solid chunk of iron, cold, and bang a hammer against it relentlessly.

[Sphalerite]

I always figured the dwarf just glared at the metal until it was intimidated enough to change into what the dwarf wanted it to.

[Sabreur]

I always figured the dwarf just glared at the metal until it was intimidated enough to change into what the dwarf wanted it to.

That's why the best statues come from strange moods. Insane dwarves are more intimidating.

[FlickerFly]

I know absolutely nothing about metal, so I just assumed it was heated and carefully hammered at.
Or else a block is made and then chiselled into a statue.

[thegoatgod_pan]

If you want an account of an awesome casting of a world-famous 16th century masterpiece by Cellini complete with a maddened sickened artist, a thunderstorm, an explosion and a fire caused by molten bronze you can find it here: http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=43395