Jewelery Technique: Lost Wax Casting.
Are you familiar with the traditional technique of lost-wax casting?
It is an old technique in jewellery which consists in carving in wax (with the use of many tools) a desired pattern, which once finished, will be hung on what we call a casting tree filled with wax pieces.
wax pieces
Hole clogged with wax
Casting tree
The cylinder is then placed upside down in order to cast the desired molten metal, which will take the place of the melted wax.
The burning cylinder is plunged in cold water so that the plaster can disintegrate and the tree, now turned into metal, can be recovered.
Casting of molten metal
The casting shaft is then placed in a metal cylinder which is filled with a plaster mixture and then placed in the oven to be baked. In this way, the wax will melt and flow to leave only the footprint of the pieces.
Metal cylinder
Plaster mix
Footprint
Baking
Flowing wax
The parts are then picked from the casting shaft and need some rework, which is what we call the trimming.
Metal parts can then be molded into a rubber or silicone mould to take their footprint. Liquid wax is injected into this new mould to obtain several copies of the same piece identically which will then be placed on a casting shaft to repeat the process.
This is what allows us to make small series in an artisanal way.