Lost wax casting, sometimes called cire perdue, is an ancient method of metal casting where a duplicate metal sculpture is cast from an original wax sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method, which is still widely used for art and jewelry today. Rings, pendants, bracelets, and even gold teeth are all commonly made via the lost wax process.
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Lost wax casting dates back thousands of years, with its earliest known use in ancient jewelry making. Over the centuries, the technique has been refined and adapted, but the basic principles remain the same. It’s been used to create some of the world’s most famous sculptures, including those from the Renaissance era.
Lost wax casting involves several key stages, each requiring precision and care. Here’s a more detailed, step-by-step look as it would apply to the creation of a bronze sculpture (though this could be applied to other alloys & metals)
The journey begins when you sculpt a model of the desired object in wax. This model is the exact replica of what you wish to cast in metal. The wax used can vary in type, ranging from beeswax to more specialized modeling waxes. The choice depends on the required detail and durability of the model that sculptors need to create.
Once the wax model is ready, it’s encased in mold material. Traditionally, this material is a kind of plaster and silica mixture called investment that can withstand high temperatures. The investing process involves encasing the wax model in investment captured in a stainless-steel tube called a flask, ensuring every detail of the wax is captured.
After the investment is set and hardened, the flask is heated in a kiln. The heat causes the wax to melt and run out through the channels called sprues leaving behind a hollow cavity in the shape of the original wax model. This step, known as burnout, is crucial and must be done carefully to prevent the mold from cracking or the details from being lost.
After burnout, molten metal (in this case, molten bronze) is forced into the cavity left behind by the wax. There are two methods commonly used to accomplish this.
Centrifugal casting, which uses a spinning mechanism to sling the molten metal into the cavity.
Vacuum casting, which uses a powerful pump to suck the molten metal into the cavity.
After the metal has been poured, the mold is briefly left to cool. This cooling process is vital as it allows the metal to solidify properly. Once cooled, the flask is submerged in cold water to break up the investment and reveal the metal casting.
The final step in wax casting involves cleaning and polishing the cast metal. Any imperfections, such as seams or leftover bits from the sprues, are removed. Further details can be added by the artist or craftsman, and surfaces are polished or treated to prevent oxidation as required for the final piece.
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When duplicates of an item are needed, rubber molds are used to produce duplicates of the same wax. These molds can either be vulcanized from layers of mold rubber with a metal master sandwiched between them. Alternative RTV (room temperature molds) can be made directly from wax or 3D-printed originals. As each wax makes one metal piece, being able to make waxes in quantity is the key to production casting.
Also known as “Precision Casting”, the investment casting process specifically uses a ceramic shell for higher precision and detail (whereas lost-wax casting can use multiple materials), making it ideal for intricate, identical industrial parts. Investment casting is more time-consuming and costly, focusing on detail and repeatability, while lost-wax casting is more versatile.
In art, wax casting is revered for its ability to produce sculptures with incredible detail and fidelity to the original design. Artists can create intricate and delicate works that would be impossible with other methods. In industry, it's used for making jewelry, dental fixtures, and components for machinery and electronics, demonstrating its versatility.
Today, technology is shaping the future of lost-wax casting. 3D printing, for instance, is used to create more accurate models, expanding the possibilities for what can be created. Despite these advancements, the basic principle of lost-wax casting remains unchanged, proving its enduring value.
Lost wax casting is more than just a method for creating objects; it’s a bridge between the past and the future, showcasing human innovation and artistic spirit. Stunning jewelry can be created through this process. Lost wax casting remains a vital and fascinating process.
If you'd like to learn more about Wax Casting, or about dozens of other metalsmithing techniques, check out our classes here at the Metal Arts Guild of GA!
The ancient Greeks and Romans had a long history of making statuary in bronze. Literally thousands of images of gods and heroes, victorious athletes, statesmen, and philosophers filled temples and sanctuaries, and stood in the public areas of major cities. Over the course of more than a thousand years, Greek and Roman artists created hundreds of statue types whose influence on large-scale statuary from western Europe (and beyond) continues to the present day.
During the third millennium B.C., ancient foundry workers recognized through trial and error that bronze had distinct advantages over pure copper for making statuary. Bronze is an alloy typically composed of 90 percent copper and 10 percent tin, and, because it has a lower melting point than pure copper, it will stay liquid longer when filling a mold. It also produces a better casting than pure copper and has superior tensile strength. While there were many sources for copper around the Mediterranean basin in Greek and Roman antiquity, the island of Cyprus, whose very name derives from the Greek word for copper, was among the most important. Tin, on the other hand, was imported from places as far as southwest Turkey, Afghanistan, and Cornwall, England.
The earliest large-scale Greek bronze statues had very simple forms dictated by their technique of manufacture, known as sphyrelaton (literally, “hammer-driven”), in which parts of the statue are made separately of hammered sheets of metal and attached one to another with rivets. Frequently, these metal sheets were embellished by hammering the bronze over wooden forms in order to produce reliefs, or by incising designs using a technique called tracing.
By the Late Archaic period (ca. 500–480 B.C.), sphyrelaton went out of use as a primary method when lost-wax casting became the major technique for producing bronze statuary. The lost-wax casting of bronze is achieved in three different ways: solid lost-wax casting, hollow lost-wax casting by the direct process, and hollow lost-wax casting by the indirect process. The first method, which is also the earliest and simplest process, calls for a model fashioned in solid wax. This model is surrounded with clay and then heated in order to remove the wax and harden the clay. Next, the mold is inverted and molten metal poured into it. When the metal cools, the bronzesmith breaks open the clay model to reveal a solid bronze reproduction.
Since the physical properties of bronze do not allow large solid casting, the use of solid wax models limited the founder to casting very small figures. To deal with this problem, the ancient Greeks adopted the process of hollow lost-wax casting to make large, freestanding bronze statues. Typically, large-scale sculpture was cast in several pieces, such as the head, torso, arms, and legs. In the direct process of hollow wax casting, the sculptor first builds up a clay core of the approximate size and shape of the intended statue. With large statues, an armature normally made of iron rods is used to help stabilize this core. The clay core is then coated with wax, and vents are added to facilitate the flow of molten metal and allow gases to escape, which ensures a uniform casting. Next the model is completely covered in a coarse outer layer of clay and then heated to remove all the wax, thereby creating a hollow matrix. The mold is reheated for a second, longer, period of time in order to harden the clay and burn out any wax residue. Once this is accomplished, the bronzesmith pours the molten metal into the mold until the entire matrix has been filled. When the bronze has cooled sufficiently, the mold is broken open and the bronze is ready for the finishing process.
In the indirect method of lost-wax casting, the original master model is not lost in the casting process. Therefore, it is possible to recast sections, to make series of the same statue, and to piece-cast large-scale statuary. Because of these advantages, the majority of large-scale ancient Greek and Roman bronze statues were made using the indirect method. First a model for the statue is made in the sculptor’s preferred medium, usually clay. A mold of clay or plaster is then made around the model to replicate its form. This mold is made in as few sections as can be taken off without damaging any undercut modeling. Upon drying, the individual pieces of the mold are removed, reassembled, and secured together. Each mold segment is then lined with a thin layer of beeswax. After this wax has cooled, the mold is removed and the artist checks to see if all the desired details have transferred from the master model; corrections and other details may be rendered in the wax model at this time. The bronzesmith then attaches to the wax model a system of funnels, channels, and vents, and covers the entire structure in one or more layers of clay. As in the direct method, the clay mold is heated and the wax poured out. It is heated again at a higher temperature in order to fire the clay, and then heated one more time when the molten metal is poured in. When this metal cools, the mold is broken open to reveal the cast bronze segment of the statue. Any protrusions left by the pouring channels are cut off, and small imperfections are removed with abrasives. The separately cast parts are then joined together by metallurgical and mechanical means. The skill with which these joins were made in antiquity is one of the greatest technical achievements of Greek and Roman bronzeworking. In the finishing process, decorative details such as hair and other surface design may be emphasized by means of cold-working with a chisel. The ancient Greeks and Romans frequently added eyes inset with glass or stones, teeth and fingernails inlaid with silver, and lips and nipples inlaid with copper, all of which contributed to a bronze statue’s astonishingly lifelike appearance.
Since all but a few ancient bronze statues have been lost or were melted down to reuse the valuable metal, marble copies made during the Roman period provide our primary visual evidence of masterpieces by famous Greek sculptors. Almost all the marble statues in the Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art are Roman copies of bronze statues created by Greek artists some 500 years earlier, during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.
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