10/23/2020 Lost Wax Casting Tutorial

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 How to Make Jewelry with Lost Wax Casting

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Lost Wax Casting: An Ancient Art

You may be surprised to learn that metal casting has been around for several thousand years. 

Jewelry Projects and But when you hear how simple the process is, you may not be so shocked. 
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If you’re interested in making your own jewelry, you don’t need to set up an expensive factory with computerized
Friendship Bracelets machinery to manage every step of the process.  Instead, you can learn the ancient art of lost wax casting and
Hemp Jewelry Making create your own handmade jewelry.  With a few pieces of equipment and a list of steps to complete, you can soon
be involved in making the very pieces of fine jewelry that you see in stores. 
Wire Jewelry Projects
How to String Beads Here are the basics of how it’s done.
Beading Jewelry
1. Make a model.  Start by making a wax model of the piece of jewelry you want to create.  You can make
Polymer Clay
basic ring bands, patterned brooches, or “baskets” to hold stones. The designs can be as simple or as
Resin Jewelry Making intricate as you want, but if you’re creating delicate items, make sure the wax you’re using is stiff enough to
Paper Beads hold the shape and malleable enough not to break off.
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Steampunk Jewelry
2. Prepare for molding.  Once the model is complete, attach it to a wax rod called a sprue (which then
Home Jewelry Business Tips attaches to a base of some sort).  This will keep your model suspended while you are making the mold
How to Design Jewelry around it (so that no part of the design is lost).

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3. Make a mold.  Place the entire construction inside a container (leaving plenty of room on all sides) and then
Bead Supply Sources fill it with the molding material.  Plaster is the most common material for the mold, although some people
prefer fiberglass or other materials.
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4. Remove the wax.  Once your mold has set, you need to create a tunnel leading to the wax, being careful
not to damage any part of the interior of the mold (as soon as you discover wax, stop tunneling).  From
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there, you will place the entire mold into an oven or kiln on a rack (over a drip pan) so that you can melt the
wax within, causing it to drip out and leave the interior of the mold empty and ready to be filled with your
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5. Pour the metal.  Once the mold has an empty chamber inside, you are ready to pour your metal in.  You’ll
need to heat it until molten (usually in a forge or with a blow torch) and then pour it into the tunnel you
Site Information created earlier in the mold.

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6. Cool and crack.  As soon as you’re finished pouring the molten metal, you’ll want to cool it as quickly as
possible to achieve a firm molding.  You’ve probably seen representations of blacksmiths doing this with
tongs and a bucket of water, and your process is going to be very similar.  Once it has cooled completely,
you can carefully crack the plaster mold and retrieve your jewelry from within.

7. Polish and perfect.  You’ll want to remove the jewelry from the sprue, then grind and polish it until all
Learn More about imperfections are erased and it is shiny and clean.  And now you have designed and created your own piece
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 About the Author: Leon Harris writes for Pennsylvania Precision Cast Parts, a leading medal casting
manufacturer specializing in lost wax casting. At PPCP you are sure to find the highest quality products at a rapid
 turnaround.

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Did you enjoy this article? Please give it a "like" to let us know ~Christine

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10/23/2020 Lost Wax Casting Tutorial

3 Comments Sort by Newest

Add a comment...

Share Michael Tayse

 That's my picture of the metal being torched and poured out of

a crucible, I'm pouring into a carved piece of plaster, it's not lost
 wax. mike tayse
 Like · Reply · 1y

 Amanda Thompson
 Thanks for sharing this information. I have been learning

 metalsmithing for about a year and the next thing I would like to
try is lost wax casting.

I have heard that some people carve the designs and send it
for casting with someone who does this professionally so they
don't have to invest in all of the equipment for melting the metal
safely.

Do you know anything about this or how one would go about

finding a reputable caster? I have searched online for
information about costs too without much luck and want to
know what I'm looking at before I buy the wax and carving
supplies.

Thanks again. I looks like a lot of fun!

Like · Reply · 1y

John Spencer
This is just some random pictures from different aspects of
mould and casting processes, but does not show how to carry
out the lost wax process, basically its a load of bollocks.
Like · Reply · 2y

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