Ashes & Resurrection
The Art of MFF | Author’s Technology for Creating Metal Sculptures from Ammunition Fragments
The sketch of the Angel was developed by Sergey Melnikoff with the assistance of AI. Based on this design, a full-scale clay model of the future sculpture was produced. During the final stage of modeling, the clay surface is covered with gauze bandages saturated in plaster. Once hardened, these create a rigid “skin” over the clay base. The procedure can be clearly observed in the treatment of the sculpture’s head.
The technological cycle begins with the removal of the “skin” made of plaster-soaked bandages that cover deep cracks formed during the drying of the clay base.
Next, the protruding sections of the clay model that define the anatomical structure of the muscles are carefully removed using mechanical tools or chisels. Beforehand, metal fragments are selected whose shapes closely correspond to the clay elements being taken away. These fragments will later replace the removed sections, integrating authentic wartime material directly into the sculpture’s form.
The clay forming the muscle anatomy is removed, since the large metal fragments to be inserted have multiple facets and cannot be accurately positioned on the clay sections of the model without their removal.
When working within the resulting empty space, it is important to keep in mind the shape of the clay model in the replaced area of the sculpture and strive to recreate it as precisely as possible by selecting metal fragments of the appropriate shape.
To accurately replicate the anatomical details of the future sculpture—especially given that the metal fragments maintain their shape without mechanical alteration—a large quantity of fragments is required. In this case, the selection for the Angel sculpture is made from two tons of ammunition fragments of varying thicknesses and shapes. The meticulous shaping of small anatomical details—such as bulging veins, tense muscles, indentations, and protruding tendons—requires many days of work, during which thousands of fragments collected from battlefields are carefully sorted.
Attachment interfaces for two-metre wings, designed to ensure secure installation while allowing effortless removal for gold plating in an electroplating bath.
In the birth of this sculpture, the artist wanders in an unending search, handpicking thousands of fragments from the fields of a war still burning. Each shard carries its own story, its own wound, and from them he shapes The Silent Uprising of an Angel. A vast and intricate creation, it resists finality, for it can be assembled in a thousand different ways—each incarnation a new revelation.
A worldwide patent application covering this technology has been filed and is currently pending. © Sergey Melnikoff, 2025