Wax Carving & Lost Wax Casting in Silver with Ben Pyper

About Ben: I have been making jewellery since retiring from a full time teaching job as head of Design Technology at a well-known Oxford school. During my time there we introduced Jewellery as a variant of GCSE Design Technology.
My work is quite varied and includes gemstone setting, enamelling, engraving, Kuem Boo, sand casting, and lost wax casting as well as the usual shaping, forming and assembly skills of the jeweller. I draw inspiration from time spent on the western shores of the Scottish Highlands with its Celtic traditions.

Course Aims

Lost wax vacuum casting allows jewellers and silversmiths to create more delicate and finer finished components than sand castings or cuttlefish bone castings. You need to start with a wax version of your design so the first Sunday will be all about carving forming and assembling designs in wax… you will then have the rest of the week to complete these and more items if you wish to. The Saturday will cover making the ‘plaster’ mould that will envelop your wax models. Then on the Sunday we will melt the wax out of the mould and pour in silver. There may well be time for students to work on finishing and polishing.

By the end of the course students should be able to take home one or more castings, derived from their carving and shaping of wax..  

Some experience of making and modelling small 3D forms will be useful, however the only requirement is normal jewellery skills… Experience of thinking and working in 3D will help, but all members of JASSO should come away with a successful casting.

Course will be taught through:

• Discussion of the general principles
• Demonstration of the process
• Then step by step progression with the group
• Detailed handouts will be provided

Equipment

Please bring your own normal jewellery equipment such as:

• 150mm steel rule
• piercing saw
• needle files
• grades of abrasive paper.
• Facemask to protect face from investment powder
• For the final Sunday bring solid shoes that cover your feet… i.e. no sandals or flip flops.

Specialist equipment required:

• Scalpel with a new pointed blade (No.11).
• Wax rasp needle files e.g. Planet Needle File Rasp set from Zoro tools £10.99.
• Dental tool selection for wax carving… from Amazon or Etsy £8 or so.
• Wax welding tool e.g.- Max-Wax, from Cooksongold £27.54. It is essential to have this tool or a similar one.
• If you can, bring along a pendant motor and stand (very useful but not essential) … with a 10-piece tungsten carbide burr set (3.2mm shank) from Amazon. £9.89
• Wax… 1mm sheet wax green… from eBay £3.30 (order early as it comes from China)
• Blue carving wax slices from Amazon £22.99. (I can sell you smaller pieces at cost)
• Wax saw blade for piercing saw. £5.30 + p&p. for 12, but I can sell you one at cost. (60p… they last forever)
• Sterling Silver grain (or clean scrap silver if you have it) … 40g (approx. for one casting) – 50g (approx. for 2 castings) – 25g per casting if working in pairs) 40 grams costs £42 + p&p from Cooksongold

The tutor will bring:

• Dental twin pen electric wax carving unit.

JASSO already has a lot of the heavy-duty equipment like the vacuum pump unit and casting furnace. I will purchase on behalf of JASSO some materials like Investment powder, and some backup materials like wax and silver grain, in case people have not brought their own.

Preparation: