Desert Crucible, Inc.

In 1974, brothers Tom Barringer (MFA), and John Barringer (MBA), and partner Donald Haskin (MFA), created a startup business named Desert Crucible, Inc., a Fine Arts Foundry in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A., dedicated to the art of bronze sculpture casting.

In the ensuing years, the enterprise grew in reputation and in size, and as many as 35 skilled artisans from around the world were drawn to employment by the foundry. Many sculptors chose Desert Crucible to produce their works. Sculptures cast by Desert Crucible can be found in all 50 States in the USA, as well as in select foreign countries. A few notable locations included are the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Ventura County, California, and the sculpture collection in the Vatican.

At the discretion and direction of the artist, a bronze sculpture is often cast in an edition of perhaps a dozen duplicates. Sometimes an “AP” (Artist’s Proof) and / or an “FP” (Foundry Proof) are also cast and used as models for finishing the editions.

Over the years of Desert Crucible’s existence, the owners of the business acquired a collection of some of the individual sculptures cast for their customer artists. Many of these are “FP” or “AP” pieces of the edition, some are numbered pieces. (Example: the numbers 3/12 cast into a sculpture indicate that particular piece to be the third of a maximum of twelve pieces of that sculpture to be cast.)

In the year 2022, the difficult decision was finally made to close the foundry and the Barringer Family has now decided to offer some of their collection of individual bronze sculptures for public sale.

Barringer LLC is the parent company of several digital endeavors of the Barringer Family and their friends. These include MerakiDesigns.net (merchandise) and
OFTech.org (digital services and business coaching).