Adventures in Casting

by sonnecreations on March 7, 2013

I’ve decided to expand my casting horizons.  At present I’ve successfully managed sand and cuttlefish casting.  Both of these methods work well, but not quite well enough because there are limits to what you can do and on top of it all, I’ve discovered that I enjoy wax carving.  There’s something satisfying about cutting off a chunk of wax and with files, burs and scrapers you can actually form something resembling a piece of jewelry and much easier than fabricating something from a piece or pieces of metal.  I hadn’t initially thought to ever tackle lost wax casting.  Expense was one factor.  I’d already invested a small fortune in all the other tools and equipment and was well set up to do pretty much anything I needed or wanted to.  Then, with my favorite aunt’s untimely death from cancer there came to me what was initially thought to be a metal melting furnace.  Firstly, I had absolutely no idea that my aunt was a jewelry maker.  Had I known this, I likely would have pursued this long before I eventually did.  My aunt inspired my creative artistic self and was apparently skilled in many things, all self taught; like sewing, woodworking and jewelry; she was also very boho chic and unconventional; traits I also ended up inheriting from the lineage.  But here we come to the reason for my desire to begin casting.  What was initially thought to be a melting furnace, is actually a mini kiln for doing wax burn out and for heating and preparing flasks for burn out.  The kiln accomodates 2″ flasks only, it’s micro.  But contained within the kiln, was also an invested flask.  The last flask that my aunt would have invested and never had the chance to cast before she passed away.  If ever there was a reason to learn a new skill, here it is and so here I go into unfamiliar territory with no formal instruction available, but lots of valuable internet resources and help.Smile

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