Brodin Studios, having developed a niche market in Law Enforcement, Fire/Rescue and the Military, had to develop the ability to produce very detailed replicas of various images, and in particular, the chest and cap badges so important to all three professions. For many years, Rodger “carved” by hand, a likeness of a police officer’s badge in dental stone, a kind of hard plaster. He’d start by digging into the flat surface the outline of the badge, then, he’d paint plaster on that surface and take away a reverse of it, carve off of a positive, then carve into a negative, he’d call them “flips,” until all surface detail had been reproduced at a 2/3rds life scale (so it wouldn’t be mistaken for a copy off an officer’s actual badge. Over eight hundred department badges were hand-carved this way, in production a rubber mold was made from the final plaster and wax poured in the mold to start the making of a bronze badge through the “Lost Wax” process.
After rodger’s death in 1995, a replacement process needed to be found and an artist by the name of Steve Holland who lives in California, took over this process and developed a more modern computer aided process to produce truly beautiful and highly detailed bronze badges that are used as a personalization of a miniature officer figure (6″) usually purchased as a retirement gift and also as the actual chest badge on a 2/3rds scale full figure of a uniformed police officer sculpture. Steve has sculpted many, many low relief sculptures, including many perfect portraits (and full round busts) and has contributed hundreds, maybe thousands of individual detailed badges to the Studios’ collection. A single officer calling from, say, the Topeka, Kansas Police Department, or a deputy from Polk County in Wisconsin will receive a personalized figure of himself (or herself) in uniform together with a bronze replica of the department badge — with their rank and badge number.
Thank you Mr. Holland.
