LOST WAX CASTING

Awhile back we played around with lost wax casting for Jewellery at art school. This meant we got to play with wax and fire. Two things I enjoy quite a lot.

The first step we had to take here was to find an object and construct it into a ring using various materials on hand. I chose the shape of a stingray found in a bag of rubber toys from the $2 shop. As the rubber was quite thick where I wanted the ring to be placed I opted to use the plastic ring of a water bottle as well as wax for added support. It was fairly difficult to keep the two secured together but after dripping hot wax and glue everywhere I managed to bind the two together long enough to get it on a sprue and flask base to pour melted bronze in. A plaster investment was then poured over this and baked in a kiln overnight. When this was ready we placed it in a casting machine spun it 3 times and melted chunks of bronze in the crucible. This involved a super hot flame. Which was pretty. The pin and arm were released from the casting machine which made it spin ridiculously fast causing me to feel somewhat nauseous (although that could've been the free beer from the opening across the hall). Once the machine slowed down and the heated bronze had evaporated the plastic/wax the flask was removed and the bronze was allowed to cool before breaking it free. After that we used various sanding and polishing tools to get rings looking as gorgeous as possible. The last photo is the end result... along with two silver rings which seem to appear gold here... but they are not. The silver rings took way less time to produce. They simply involved taking a stick of silver, heating it to make it pliable, running it through a roller to get the desired shape then shaping, soldering and polishing. Easy!