Rudi taught himself blacksmithing when he was 16. He built himself a forge, then made most of the tools needed for the job of blacksmithing in this forge as well as eventually building a power hammer. He then moved onto teaching himself bronze casting using the lost wax process.

 

The first step to make a bronze is creating a sculpture out of wax, then encasing this sculpture in a plaster mould. The wax has to be melted out of the mould and then finally pouring molten bronze into the cavity in the plaster mould. This whole process takes a lot of time, patience and skill.

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‘Ponga’ a bronze sculpture by Rudi was given by the Waitakere City Council to its sister city in Japan Kakogawa.

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Rudi has also turned into bronze figures from the famous ‘Alice in Wonderland’ stories. There is the 'White Rabbit' with his fob watch and cane, 'The Hatter' with his tea cup and biscuit and 'Alice' holding a small drink me bottle.