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Casting 2: Intermediate Wax Working & Mold Making
Casting allows you to create amazing designs that would be hard to do directly in metal. This class embraces the next steps of the basic lost wax casting process – investigate mold making techniques and ways to handle stone settings in cast pieces.
The semester will start off focusing on carving a ring with a setting for a faceted stone, and then how to add “gallery work”, or pierced detail, underneath it to allow light to pass through and create more interest.
In addition, molding techniques will be introduced -- both high tech, high detail and low tech, low cost. Molding making allows you to produce copies of a design you love. With mold making, we can also lift textures from items that can’t be cast (branches, tile, etc.), duplicate parts from finished jewelry or metal models to make a repeating pattern, and even reuse parts we have already made. With these techniques, making a beautiful linked bracelet is almost as simple as making one link.
There will be the opportunity to cast in class if students are interested. David will provide information about sending wax models out to a casting house so more time can be spent on mold making if desired.
Meet the instructor
David Baird has been making jewelry for nearly four decades. He received his bachelor's degree at the Evergreen State College, and his MFA from The School of the American Craftsman at Rochester Institute of Technology. He also has a GG (Graduate Gemology certificate) from the GIA.
David sells his work nationally and has taught classes and workshops for at least 30 years around New England including Metalwerx, DeCordova Museum School, and Lexington Arts and Crafts Center. More recently he has been developing specialized jigs to make bench processes easier for his students. The Directed Open Studio courses at Metalwerx are led by David because of his vast knowledge about the many facets of metalworking.
Over the past 15 years, David has expanded his repertoire to include lapidary cabbing and carving. He now devotes his time between two studios, both lapidary and jewelry, taking on commissions by request. His studio is located at the Waltham Mill Buildings, near Metalwerx where still he teaches regularly.
Materials & Tools
A materials fee of $35 is payable upon registration. It includes wax and a stone for the ring project, three types of molding material, and other miscellaneous supplies needed for the process.
- Any wax carving tools you already have.
- Optional: Scrap silver & casting grain if students wish to cast. This will be discussed at class.