The Lost Wax Process is a process used in bronze making, whereby cast of an object, or a hand made sculpture is made in wax, around which a plaster refractory mould is made. The wax is melted out of the refractory and bronze is poured in its place. This method dates back over 4000 years and is still used today.
Having decided that I wanted to cast a discarded cloth in bronze, the first stage was to create it in wax. In order to achieve this, I used alginate which is made from seaweed and is often used in dentistry. Having made a container out of clay, I poured the mixed alginate over the top of the cloth. Once the alginate solidified, which was only a matter of minutes, I removed the cloth and brushed on several layers of wax inside the resulting mould. The wax cast was removed once it had cooled.
I followed the same procedure to make a wax cast of a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. The cigarette packet was completed in several stages. First of all I made a wax cast of the main body of the cigarette packet, some of the cigarettes got damaged, so I made a separate cast for these and attached them afterwards with a hot knife. I had to make another mould for the lid, painting on several layers of warm wax to build up the thickness – the wax needs to be at least 2mm thick. The lid was then attached to the cigarette box using a hot knife and welding the wax elements together.
In order for the bronze to be poured into the refractory mould, a series of runners and risers have to be attached to the wax cast. In the image above, the riders have been attached using a hot knife. The finished work looks like a tree, with all the runners pointing upwards. It is important that when the bronze is poured, it fills from the bottom up – the positioning of the upward runners ensures this is the case. It is also important that there are no ‘jumps’ – I had to add wax to join the top of the cigarettes and the top of the cigarette packet, otherwise the bronze would not reach these areas. The next stage is to attach a cup for pouring the bonze and a series of risers to ensure that air is released from the mould as the wax is melted, ensuring there are no air bubbles in the final bronze casting. This is an ongoing project and I will update the blog when I have completed the next stage.