Experimental Casting

This is a project I did for the latest book (on stone setting). Well, these are the first attempts which didn't work out - for a number of reasons - and therefore didn't make it into the book. I quite like them as objects, though.

I was setting the large czs into a delft clay mould before pouring in the silver. It seems that stones this size can't cope with the heat shock of the molten silver (I presume they would survive the lost wax process better as the mould is already hot when the silver is poured in). Having subsequently discovered that I was running out of gas, I realised that this was the main reason that the castings didn't work as the molten silver wasn't quite hot enough when it went into the mould. I also should have made more air holes.

A more simple form (with smaller stones) was used for the project in the book, as I was up against the deadline of the next photoshoot to get this, and several other samples ready.

The malformed rings reminded me a bit of these little objects:

These small silver sculptures are some of the results from a Masterclass I did with Karl Fritsch during my studies at the Royal College of Art. Karl makes jewellery using experimental lost wax casting techniques, often casting stones into position in the pieces. A small group of us were working together making forms from a special blend of soft wax (and it was a very hot week, so the wax was very soft and difficult to control!). 

These forms (some with stones) were invested in individual flasks and the wax burnt out in a kiln for about an hour, before we cast in silver. The flask was placed on one side of a balance (with a counterweight on the other side) and string was wound around the central axis of the balance. Then the  silver was melted directly on top of the flask using an oxyacetylene torch - the surface tension of the liquid prevents it from running straight down into the flask. The string was then pulled, which spun the balance and the silver was sucked down into the flask with the centrifugal force of the spinning balance.

It was great fun, probably because it was quite risky! (But we were all kitted up in leather aprons and big gloves). The whole process was very different to the way I usually work, as it was difficult to accurately control the outcomes of the experiments, but also a very quick process compared to the usual lost wax technique. I appreciated the immediacy of the results, and also the freedom that working with such soft wax dictated.

The V&A holds the collection of pieces from RCA Masterclasses (each year several prominent guest lecturers visit to teach a workshop). You can see one of Karl's rings from the Masterclass here.