Lost Wax Rings (ongoing)

This weekend was fabulous and always gone too soon. Last night (Sunday) we had a smashing time at the Detroit Opera House and where we were privileged to see the incomparable Jessye Norman. Divalicious to the nth degree, ask about her. LOL. There was also a fabu afterglow, with yummy treats abound. So it was a perfect ending to a great weekend.

Anyway, it's time to get back to work. ^.^ As I've been promising, it's time to see what's new in the 'lab'. I've been working with wax in efforts to make a lost wax mold of a series of rings. This process has been rather slow for me, but with each cast, carving, etc. I'm learning something new. I'll share w/you my very first ring made w/this method, but it was done totally as a pilot to see how far I could stretch the method. The process is called lost wax b/c that's exactly what happens in the creation of the mold. I'll keep the explanation pedestrian.

First you take wax, craving and shaping it into the desired shape. Here's what it looks like it after sawing, lots of shaving and shaping. I actually split this one in half so you could see where it's going. I'll shape it down until it reaches the desired thickness. This takes a few hours, maybe longer.


Okay, so this piece is then ready to melt. You actually take the wax, adding it to a base and then surround it w/plaster. I'll try to update this w/images of the tools used in the workroom. The plaster cooks for about 3 hours, leaving the impression of the wax behind after it has melted away. Using a centrifuge, molten metal is then injected (via the force of the centrifuge) into the mold. After rinsing the plaster away the casting is complete.




The rings in this image are made of sterling silver. Sterling emerges very dark and dull from the mold. The next images are after a boric acid bath.

Now here comes the fun part. The rings must be cut away from the metal stem using hand saws and files. Sometimes, very often actually, bubbles will form and are actually cast into the metal. All such imperfections have to be hand filed out as well. Once the hand filing is complete, the rings go through several other steps, fine sanding done w/the aid of a machine (for a long time, lol), polishing and finally a sonic cleansing. This ring (resting on the base) still needs more polishing, but I do like a dull finish, but I'll bring this one all the way up to a more traditional silver high polish. The ring attached to the base, at this point has been untouched. The white ash look will file off of the metal.


This is the very first cast I've done using lost wax. I carved in those details just to see how much detail the method would capture. Absolutely everything I carved into the wax, mistakes and all, are in the final version. You can get some of these imperfections out by sanding, but I can accept the flaws as part of the learning process. This is actually a man's ring, it turned out a bit larger than expected. But it's a great way to start a men's line. ^.^ It's about 90% complete at this point. It does have a high shine, but to photograph it I had to take the pics w/o the flash. The inner part of the band is challenge me b/c I made some mistakes w/tool use, but everything I've done can be undone w/more sanding. The gift and the curse, lol.




This next ring is part of the series I'm working on. They haven't been name just yet. I was thinking Goldsworthy, because the shapes remind me of the undulations in his work. Just a thought. Anyway, this is only half of the ring. The next step for this piece will be recasting the ring in wax, using this part as the mold. Then it will be recast in metal. Hopefully finishing it will be aided by the smoothness of this final product. The wave is probably least exaggerated in this ring, so it will be interesting to see what that means when it comes to setting the actual stones. This ring needs more polishing as well, but I actually like a dull finish. It almost looks like stainless steel and I may actually cast some of these in steel.


The design scheme is to set a stone btwn these two shapes. I'll show you process of course as it develops. The other rings in this series have a similar wave pattern, some on the horizontal axis, some vertical. They'll kinda look like this (of course I can't get the stone to stand) with the stone set between the metals. The stones are rutiled quartz (which is sooo much more beautiful than I capture), citrine and a recycled stone.


Stay tuned! I'll keep you updated as these develop.

Currently in the lab.... I made chain yesterday. It was supposed to be a bracelet, but the pattern doesn't show on the wrist, so I'm turning it into a focal piece in a necklace. I also ran out of links, so I have to make more and actually I need to change the pattern to make it work. Sometimes the very best things come out of "mistakes" so I'm rather excited. It's like having a design challenge. :p