Wax Buddha

Another attempt at wax carving, aiming at a Buddha image to cast in metal. It's hard to carve this wax which is quite sticky. I am using a small craft knife and a wooden tool. A better finish seems to come using my fingersGetting closer to a lifelike image hopefully. Haven't quite worked out a good technique for the fine details on the face yet.

Lost Wax at Home

When Mrs T was not looking, I did some lost wax at home in the kitchen. I really like this one.

I made this one in a plastic water bottle which was easy to cut away once the plaster had set

Emergence sans Sprues

The sprues have been cut away and a small amount of finishing applied to the metal with files, colour powder and elbow grease. It's probably best left fairly natural though

Emergence

Lost Wax Process 5

It is difficult to break the plaster casing out of the tin - it took 2 hours! I had greased the inside with wax but obviously insufficiently. Anyway ... eventually I chipped it all away to reveal this ...

Lost Wax Process 4

The wax sculpture is then inverted, a reservoir added on the bottom and it is then set in plaster











The plaster cast is then set in the wax melter. The wax slowly melts over about an hour

Lost Wax Process 3

Lost Wax Process 2

The finished wax is a human-like form emerging from the primordial waters. Sprues are added to aid the flow of molten metal to all parts of the sculpture.

Lost Wax

So I started another lost wax project, getting some inspiration from both my clay models and a beautiful South Indian bronze of Vishnu as Matsya that I picked up in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. I bought some low melt metal from Tiranti's near Warren Street. The man assured me it was lead free pewter - however it seems to have a smidgeon of the stuff therein. Please wash your hands before you eat your rice & curry.

Lost Wax Metal Figure

Filed down, sprues removed, he looks like this.

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.