THAT SWORD JOFFREY Baratheon was wielding on Game of Thrones last night? It was cast in a studio on the northside of Dublin’s inner city.
The Bronze Art Fine Art Foundry in North Strand has made ornate weapons for several seasons of the HBO juggernaut – including this Longclaw sword, wielded by Jon Snow (below).
The foundry’s artisans also made Jaime Lannister’s sword from the season 4 premiere, and other signature pieces.
“We’ve done five items altogether,” David O’Brien of Bronze Art told DailyEdge.ie.
How does it work? Well, the foundry receives the original artwork from the production studio, then casts the real swords for the actors to use.
The first artworks are usually sculpted in Milliput, a resin-like substance, by Graham Barrow in Belfast. Then the foundry goes to work:
They do the artwork up there in Belfast, they make the designs based on the books. You make a rubber mould of them. First we do a wax copy, to make sure it’s looking like the original. Then you make the inside hollow to keep it light and so the actual sword blade can fit in.
The foundry is part of a chain of skilled craftspeople producing the weapons, says O’Brien.
The blades are supplied by the Chief Armourer Tommy Dunne and we fit them to the handles so they are strong and secure for set.There are many hands that make the different parts, from the blacksmiths that forge the Damascus Steel blades to the costume artists that design and make the scabbards. We are just happy to have a small part to play in such a worldwide phenomenon.
Here’s Jaime Lannister in the first episode of this series:
And here’s the sword as Bronze Art made it:
The Bronze Art foundry have now made weapons for every season of Game of Thrones except the first. “They’ve been pretty happy with it,” O’Brien says.
The company has also made weapons for the first series of Vikings. So how did they land the Game of Thrones job?
I did modelmaking and special effects for film. Myself and another guy, we worked on a few movies and things and we just got to know the guys who were involved. They got in touch [about Game of Thrones] and said ‘Is that something you can do?’
The company also made this knife and sickle – complete with tasteful naked women on the handles – for recurring character Daario Naharis:
