How did Henry Moore build his bronze sculptures before they were cast?

For his bronze sculptures, Henry Moore typically did not model in clay. Instead, he built them up initially in plaster over a wire and wood armature.1

Moore preferred to work in a manner similar to a carver, utilizing a carver’s tools to cut, scrape, and chisel the surfaces of the plaster. While he did use clay and terra-cotta for studies during earlier commissions, such as his work on the Madonna and Child in the 1940s, his later approach to bronze casting relied on this direct plaster-modeling technique.12