The Lost Wax Bronze process or hollow bronzes date back to the third millenium BC in Egypt.

The artist uses Plastilene clay to form the model on a skeleton or armature of aluminum wire and pipe attached to a base. For life-size bronze, enlargement from the small model has been simplified by computer technology.

A wax reproduction must be made of the model whether it is small or has been enlarged. To do this a mold is created into which hot wax will be poured. The mold can be used to produce copies of the sculpture, which are usually limited in number, before the mold is broken. One of the distinctions of a Tognoni sculpture is that she creates her own molds (using rubber and plaster), and she perfects the figure in wax herself.

First, tubes of wax are attached to the figure at necessary points to allow molten bronze to flow to all parts.
Lowered into a bottomless metal cylinder, the wax is surrounded by liquid investment from which air bubbles are removed by vacuuming. Once the investment has hardened, the cylinder is placed in a burnout oven, and the wax melts and runs off or burns. Into the cavity left behind by the wax, a foundry man pours the molten bronze.

here shown being broken from the cylinder. Investment is removed with hammer and chisel and by sand blasting before the pieces can be welded back together. Tognoni often participates in chasing or grinding the bronze to clean up imperfections and weld seams before color-producing chemical are torched in and hot waxed to finish the sculpture.