Wax Castings
Posted on January 21, 2013
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A look behind the scenes in my studio! Here are some of the steps that I take to create my cast sterling silver collections. Below are wax wire flower designs that I made using an x-acto knife and a hot wax pen. I wanted to make a collection of larger, yet lighter, floral images for this jewelry collection. My process is very free form and loose. First I will sketch some images in my sketchbook from flowers in my garden and then I cut and bend the wax pieces into various shapes and 'weld' them together with the hot wax pen.
This is what the pieces look like after they are cast in sterling silver. As you can see, there are many little 'sprues' covering the petals, that is where the molten silver flows into the mold created from the wax model. Now each sprue must be sawed off, sanded and the whole piece polished. The process is very labor intensive and although they are cast, each piece is hand finished individually.
From here I designed many different combinations of the cast flowers to create both small and large necklaces and earrings which are in the Summer Sunshine Collection. And, here is a peek of my jewelry/art studio, this is where the 'magic' happens!
