Lost- Waxing is one of the oldest Silver design techniques. This techniques history reaches back all the way to 3500 BC. It has been used since the Mesopotamians, and the Greek and Roman Empires dominated the world. The lost-wax casting tradition at first was developed by the people of South America. It appeared in Mexico until the tenth century AC, and they used it frequently thereafter. Today’s method of the lost-wax casting is very similar to the ancient technique of goldsmiths of Egypt and the pre – Columbian tribes.
Lost-wax casting method is used both for gold and silver alloys, mostly for rings and bracelets. But this technique can be also used for casting a variety of objects. It is used on about 60% of all karat gold jewelry, and big part of all silver jewelries today. This method permitts to transfer the finest detail into a gold or silver piece. The pieces generally produced by casting can be still crafted with other techniques such as soldering and so on.
The technique:
1) With an original metal item(design), a rubber mold is made .
2) Out of this rubber mold several wax duplicates can be produced. The wax duplicates get attached with each other by a linking sprue.
3) Then the tree is placed in a metal container and gets covered with plaster of Paris. Once, the plaster mold hardens it gets heated up, the wax melts by the heat, leaves the mold and a fine detailed hollow plaster mold stays.
4) Molten gold/silver is poured into the hollow plaster while the entire mold is placed in a vacuum that allows the metal to fill out every single corners of the mold forming a perfect copy of the original design.
5) Whenever the gold/silver copies get cool they brake the plaster form. And also the silver/gold copies get ready to end up being cutted from the treaty for hand finishing/polishing.
