One of the questions I get asked most often in the comments is: "But how does a piece of jewelry made of wax become silver?" Today I'll try to explain the lost-wax casting process simply and clearly.
To show you each step, I visited Marco's workshop, where he casts all my jewelry. The first step is creating the wax models. If it's a new design, the wax is molded from scratch. However, in these photos, I'll show you wax models created from a mold.
Once the jewelry prototype is created, a mold is created to replicate the model. This mold is made from silicone rubber. The process for creating a wax model is simple: hot wax is injected into the mold using a machine called a wax injector and the wax is allowed to solidify.
Once the wax models are obtained, they are assembled on a main trunk, forming a structure reminiscent of a tree. This arrangement allows for multiple pieces of jewelry to be cast simultaneously.
Once the wax tree is completed, it is placed into a cylinder, and liquid plaster, a refractory material that will create a solid shape around the wax tree, is then poured inside.
The plaster cylinder is then placed in a high-temperature oven for several hours. This step is crucial: the heat melts the wax, which drains out through channels, leaving a void inside the plaster. This void exactly reproduces the shape of the wax jewelry that was previously there.
At this point, the metal is melted. In this case, the silver is melted and poured into the empty plaster mold. The liquid metal flows through the main channel of the tree and fills the cavities created by the wax models.
Once the silver has cooled and solidified, the plaster is broken to reveal the silver jewelry tree.
The next step is to separate the individual jewels from the tree. Each piece is then meticulously finished, using processes such as polishing, soldering, or other finishing touches, until the desired final result is achieved.
