Peak Behind the Curtain (Part 2- Lost Wax)
All around the world for thousands of years, people have been casting jewelry using the Lost Wax method.
Historically, an artisan would carve a piece on wax into whatever shape they desired. Then a wet plaster type material is packed around the wax to make a mold leaving an entry and exit hole. The whole mold is put into an oven to melt the wax out of the mold, leaving a cavity in the shape of the original design. Molten metal is then poured into the mold. After cooling, the mold is broken revealing a metal copy of the original wax.
This process works so well we are still using it today!
For our productions we use two molds. The first mold is reusable silicon mold that allows us to make multiple wax copies of our designs. These wax copies are attached to a cylinder of wax called a sprue tree and then cast in metal. This allows us to get some efficiency with our production and yet maintain our quality by working in small batches.