Various Locations
The clay sculpture used to make the fireplace for Bijan’s private office in his Rodeo Drive store
I am not sure exactly when the hell mouth craze took off, but Michael H. Casey had four large projects that incorporated these commissioned sculptures.
Bijan incorporated many of them in his Rodeo Drive store in 1999. They were used as shelving, and then there was one that served as a fireplace in his office. If you go to the Bijan website you will see that the fireplace is still there and the design has been incorporated in the glass within the store.
This was the clay that served as the model for the plaster shelving in the Bijan Rodeo Drive Store
The shelving ready to ship to the Bijan store in Beverly Hills
Then there was the one that served as an outdoor fireplace
Another that served as an indoor fireplace
This is the clay model for the indoor fireplace
The fun thing about this fireplace is that you could see it from the front gate, it became more dramatic as you got further onto the property.
This client, in 2002, even added a custom sculpted lion fountain to really make their backyard pop. It is important to remember that everyone of these were individual. Each time a new sculpture had to be done. Michael H. Casey would sculpt a full model in clay and then Michael H. Casey Designs would produce the final product either out of plaster or cast stone, depending on the particular job.
The clay model for the outdoor fireplace in Southern California
Here is the clay model for the fountain. Take a look at those curls; hair, mane and curls are repetitive and take hours and hours of sculpting. Michael once said working on it was like listening to Yanni music.