//Wax Carving

Casting is one of the most popular methods of producing jewellery is small batch production, and also larger scale production too - which is something that I never plan on doing but it's still an interesting process to learn as I may do a few collections in the future that will need producing in small batches to save time. The basic concept is that a master (the original piece) is made and then repeated by casting it. The master can be made from whatever materials you choose (as long as it I able to have moulds made from it), one of the most common being wax.

Why wax? Because when you carve designs into it you can get incredibly detailed 3 dimensional designs that would be so hard to achieve in metal. You also add wax if you carve off too much - something that would be a very messy job in silver or gold! It's also so much softer than carving directly into metal and mistakes are much less costly.

So at college this week we were lucky enough to be taught the art of wax carving by a master of the craft called Daniela, who has worked for Vivienne Westwood, runs her own successful casting business, works as a tattoo

artist, and not to mention has amazing jewellery style too!

She gave us two projects - one was 6 different little carvings into a chunk of wax and the other was a letter 'A'.

As this was my first ever attempt at carving, it was easier to have something to follow rather than go ahead and do my own design.

Before we started carving we had to shape three blades for carving different areas, this was done by first annealing the blades under a torch, and then filing away the unwanted blade and angling the file to create sharp tapered cutting points. Then we were ready to start carving! So here's what I made - not amazing but it was my first time!...

Louise xx