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The making of Oscar (literally)

A worker pours a mold to make an Oscar statue at the R.S. Owens company in Chicago, Illinois.

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- It may take decades for someone to win an Oscar, but creating Hollywood's golden object of desire takes but a few days.

It takes about a week-and-a-half to create each Academy Award at R.S. Owens, the Chicago-based manufacturer of the coveted gold statuette.

The figurines cost an estimated $18,000, but are "worth millions to the recipients," says Scott Siegel, president of R.S. Owens.

The process of making each 13-and-a-half-inch, 8-and-a-half-pound statuette begins with casting a mold. The mold is cast using a combination of tin, copper and antimony that's the highest grade of pewter available -- along with a few secret ingredients, according to Siegel.

Once cast, the statuette is sanded down and polished "until there are no flaws," Siegel says.

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After roughly an hour of polishing, the statuette is electroplated with four different finishes: copper, nickel, silver and a heavy layer of 24-carat gold. The statuette is hand dipped into each of the plating materials.

Once the plating is completed, the Oscar figure is screwed onto its metal base. Each statuette also is numbered. The academy began numbering statuettes in 1949, starting with No. 501.

"We've been making about 50 to 60 each year," Siegel says.

No nameplates attached

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, once the statuettes are completed, each award is individually packed into a plastic foam container slightly larger than a shoe box.

Eight of the containers are then placed in a cardboard box and shipped by air express to the Academy's offices in Beverly Hills, California. The boxes are shipped with no identifiable markings, according to the academy.

After the awards, R.S. Owens also engraves the plates with the names of the winners and sends the plates out to Hollywood to be affixed to the statuettes.

Oscars are electroplated with four different finishes: copper, nickel, silver and 24-carat gold.

Any statuettes that don't meet strict quality-control standards are immediately cut in half and melted down, according to the academy.

Keeping it clean

R.S. Owens works a year ahead of schedule, so the statuettes that will be awarded on Sunday were made last year. That's partly because of the theft of 55 statuettes on March 10, 2000. They vanished while en route from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Fifty-two statuettes were recovered nine days later next to a trash bin in Los Angeles. They were discovered by salvage man Willie Fulgear, who attended the awards that year as a special guest.

R.S. Owens also works on its creations after the Oscars have been awarded. According to the academy, R.S. Owens has repaired more than 160 statuettes since 1995.

"Maybe somebody used chemicals on them to polish them and the chemicals rubbed right through the lacquer and into the gold," Siegel says. "Or maybe people stored them someplace where they corroded."

Should you ever win an Oscar, here's Siegel's advice: "If it gets dusty, simply wipe it with a soft, dry cloth."

CNN's Chicago Bureau Chief Jeff Flock contributed to this report.