Welcome to Stormflight Designs

www.StormFlightDesigns.com


If you've always wondered about how jewelry is made and fine craft is done, this is the blog for you! Our intent is to show you the step-by-step of creating jewelry from a silver-smith's and lampworker's point of view. We'll throw in some other interesting craft-work too. Consider this a "tutorial-light" blog in a way. You'll get to see the creative process from start to finish. Sometimes it may take a while to get to the finish, so please be patient! We often have to wait for the muse to strike--sometimes in the middle of a different project!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Lost Wax Casting, Attempt #1

Lost Wax Casting Attempt #1

I took a casting class about a year ago and just loved it!  I found some used equipment, set it up and then did nothing else for long enough to forget everything I learned!

Lucky for me, I kept a file of my notes.  Of course, I had to find where I put those darn notes...


Creating the designs from wax was the easy part.  It was the actual casting that I had to try to remember how to do.  I made enough items for 3 flasks to experiment with for my first try.

As you can see from the photos I had several pieces where the molten silver didn't flow all the way through.  When I released the centrifuge to spin the flask with the molten silver it fell off the arm! oops! I had to figure out how in the world to keep that from happening.  Turns out I hadn't attached the arm properly in the first place.  So, there went 2 of the flasks.  Third time was a charm!   As you can see the ring came out just fine.



I think this heart has a lot of potential!  After it gets cleaned up I might layer it with some enameling...

Stay tuned for when I get these items cleaned up and try some new pieces!  But don't hold your breath 'cause it may take another year.

Be Creative Today!
StaC