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David Hock of Bowling Green casts metal storyteller figures.

But rather than taking full credit for the finished product, he prefers to say that he only helps in the process.

The rest comes from allowing them to take their own shapes, he said.

During the process of lost-wax casting, Hock pours a molding material around the desired shape, which is made with sculpting wax.

It then is fired in a kiln so the material hardens into a ceramic mold and the wax melts out. Liquid metal - usually silver or bronze, for Hock - is poured into the hollow left behind by the melted wax and allowed to harden.

The mold then is cracked open to reveal the figure.

It may appear to others to be just an abstract piece of metal, but each has something of the essence of the person for whom it was made, Hock said.

"It began out of wanting to make an offering to family and friends in a gift setting," he said.

Later, he realized he had always wanted something of those people to be connected to the item."I want their hand, their heart, their story to somehow be involved in the process - something of their story," Hock said. '

DAILY NEWS, BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1999

That can be done simply by having the person's fingerprint or an item with special meaning pressed into the wax to leave a permanent echo of the person or the moment in time that the special item represents. As the person touches the wax, he should have in his heart what he wants transferred onto the piece, whether it be a particular emotion, memory or even music, Hock said.

The former welding engineer began doing casting about 10 years ago, after he had decided he wanted to do more physical work with his hands and fell in love with the casting process.

"When metal goes liquid, I'm just enchanted," he said:

When Hock takes himself out of the way, he listens and interprets what the voice in the form and texture of the object is telling him about the direction it should take, he said. He likens his work to that of a gardener who plants a seed and carefully nurtures it but cannot say he made the flower.

In December 1997, Hock read about Mary Kane of Lexington, who uses the art of storytelling to help heal, spending many hours with hospitalized children.

He had a "vague notion" that the type of work he does could help if applied to that healing process, so he wrote to Kane, he said.

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and occurrences and happy accidents, but the groundwork was born out of heartfelt emotions." In May, University of Kentucky Medical Center's children's hospital had its first memorial service for parents who had lost children. As one of several projects Hock hopes to work on with Kane, the pair chose a unique way to capture the service's spirit. Hock formed his wax into a heart shape similar to that of a redbud leaf like those in Kane's garden. At the memorial service, the heart was passed among the family members, some of whom left fingerprints or etched tiny drawings in the wax. After the service, several hospital staff members joined the creative process, passing the wax among themselves. Hock now will cast the heart in bronze and return it to the hospital for permanent display. "(The heart) represents the most important thing I have to say," Hock said.

"I get chills up my spine just holding this."