Coiled form with Macramé knots

Coiled form with Macramé knots, a unique bronze cast from a wax original #bronze #sculpture

Woven Experiment No.69 - Wax drips

Woven Experiment No.69 - Wax drips

The melting idea has worked but is very very slow. It does however, if you don’t heat the wax too much, create beautiful little droplets that retain their shape whilst resetting. If the temperature is too high the wax runs and spreads too much when the droplet hits the surface of the plaster.

The result is a very interesting surface texture that highlights the simplicity of the carved piece within. The question is however, will this cast? Will the delicate texture be still visible once bronze? 

Luted Crucible Bronze Casting at The Institute of Making

During my research into ancient casting techniques I came across an interesting technique called “Luted Crucible Bronze Casting”.

‘Luted’ or sealed crucible casting is a low-cost and low-tech method of casting, relatively unknown outside India and West Africa. It involves sealing the raw ingredients for bronze - copper and tin - into one half of a peanut-shaped crucible made from mud. The other half contains the wax model to be cast. The whole thing is baked in a furnace, and when the metal is molten it is flipped over, and the liquid bronze fills the cavity left by the wax.

See the article in full on UCL Institute of Making