CODY - "A labor of love" is how Patricha Gunsch describes her bronzing work at Vic Payne Studio Bronze Sculpture.

Payne has a studio in downtown Cody, and he is in the process of opening a new facility this summer at the old Ballard Rifle and Cartridge Co. building on Cody's west strip.

It is a huge place.

Within the cavernous structure are rooms where the pieces are transferred as they make their journey through the bronzing process. In a simplified description, a bronze is created from clay.

The clay is used as a mold to encase the poured bronze. Once the bronze cools, the clay is chipped away to reveal the sculpture.

In one area will be a corral to hold live animals. Payne said critters will be placed in the pen so the artists can sculpt their pieces while gazing at their four-legged models.

Payne is a Western history buff. He loves the Western heritage associated with Cody and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. His art captures compelling scenes from the Old West, from American Indians hunting and riding horses to cowboys clinging to bucking broncos.

Payne sells smaller sculptures to individuals and larger statues to corporations. Four of his pieces can be found at Cabela's stores across the country, and the studio is working on a fifth bronze for the sporting-goods giant.

Bronze sculpture has been around for 3,000 years, Payne said. He has been sculpting for about 30 years. Art seems to run in the family. Payne's parents were sculptors, and so is his son, Dustin, who works at the studio.

In 1991, Payne opened his first gallery in Santa Fe, N.M. Now he owns galleries in Jackson Hole and Cody.

Payne and his wife, Angie, also have their sights set on Powell, where they are building a house. Payne wants his kids to have the same rural roots he enjoyed while growing up in a small western town in New Mexico.

Payne is not operating a foundry for fast profits. It is a risky, costly venture.

"It's not just for the money," Payne said. "It's for a studio and a town we like."

Clay sculptures awaiting bronze sit on tables, as though eager to leap into action. They are a shiny mud brown and resemble children's toys, like molded plastic soldiers. But the details are as clear as the lines on your grandma's face. And these pieces are larger than toys, from the size of a watermelon to a huge grain combine.

For instance, the "Texas Two-Step" in front of the studio weighs 8,000 pounds, is 18 feet tall and 18 feet across. The price is nearly $400,000.

For the big stuff, costs range from $400,000 to $1 million, Payne said. Smaller pieces for the home range from $1,000 to $10,000.

"Texas Two-Step" took six months to complete, Payne said.

Another commissioned piece in the works is a sculpture of the Chisolm Trail. John Chisolm carved his name in Western history by driving cattle out of Texas in a post-Civil War West.

The Chisolm piece still is in the preliminary stages, but Payne said it likely will feature two riders on horses and five or six cows. Payne is rearing to go.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said.

Meanwhile, Gunsch is polishing a bronze with steel wool. As she works, she regards the piece with the practiced eye of an artist.

Gunsch scrubs diligently, and then applies heat and a chemical solution. The burnished gold bronze color attains vitality before the eyes. Surfaces take on a shiny texture like dull old pennies that are scrubbed to recapture their original mint glow.

The horses and rider are breathtaking.

"I talk to them a lot," said Gunsch, wielding a small torch. "I tell them how pretty they are."

In another room, Justin Munden solders delicate extensions to a Western motif piece. Right now he is attaching a lasso to a horseman. It is so lifelike. The cowboy appears frozen in a moment of time - from his wind-blown hat flattened to his forehead, to his flowing mustache, to the hooped rope ready to snap from his wrist to capture a straying pony.

It is painstaking work, but Munden doesn't mind.

"It's fun to me," he said.