2025-26 Downtown Sculpture Gallery – City of Auburn, WA
NWSSA Staff
December 18, 2024
Pat Doratti has his stone studio in Nelson, British Columbia a small arts city in the Rocky Mountains above Spokane Washington.
One of the interesting things he has there is a six axis robotic stone milling machine. Carl Nelson has worked with Patrick and this wonderful tool to create computer generated voids in some of his Dunite sculptures.
Patrick started by splitting the marble block into two equal pieces with wedges and feathers and a ring saw. He then scanned a plaster model with his in-house 3-D laser scanner, cleaning up the scan with his CAD software. The finished scan was then put into his CAM software which details the milling instructions for the robotic cutter.
Since the client wanted a pitted, old bronze look, the finished stone was sandblasted, then sanded with 400 and 800 grit, but leaving some rough spots.
The required aging process uses a mix of black ash, oil, grease and a few other things. It was then wiped-down with a hand pad to achieve a matt finish with a very old weathered look. This takes some time, so it’s the gargoyles are still sitting in Pat’s shop being finished.
As you can imagine, technology comes with price tag. The shop rate is $100/hour but can be a big savings in time for large projects and also allows the artist to do small multiples like you would with the bronze process. Patrick is open to working with the artist’s budget.
You can reach Patrick Doratti through his email: dorattisculpture@gmail.com
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