Lost Wax Process

The wax model was encased in a plaster mould and left for a week. The mould was shaved to fit the wax melter in the studio and then I melted out the wax, which took a while as the whole mould had to get hot enough to melt the wax in the head. Then I cut up and melted some low melt metal in a saucepan - Paul says it is primarily tin - it's pretty soft. The liquid metal was then poured in to the mould. I had made wax sprues on the model to allow the molten metal to flow to the head and other difficult areas. Then, the moment of truth: the plaster is broken away and sure enough here is a metal version of my wax sculpture! You can see the sprues, from the chin to the lap for instance, which now need filing off.