Part I of this series here.
Part II of this series here.
For more photos of this process, visit our flickr photostream!
Quick review- here’s what we started with:
And here’s what we’re going for:
How we get from point A to point B has been detailed fo ...
Remember this?
Part I of this series can be found here.
Part III of this series can be found here.
The molds that we left in the steam de-waxer have lost more than 90% of their wax. They are now ready to enter the next phase of casting! Here is the de-waxing machine:
Not very impressive by itself. Here is the inside, after a de-waxing. Note t ...
We usually know them the moment they walk in the door.
Their shoulders stoop ever so slightly, their gait is unnatural, often ashamed.
Some have forced cheery smiles on their faces, others have a defiant stance, ready to spar. But they all seem to have the same air about them- they’ve fallen on harder times, and they are in need of money.
They come to sell us their gold.
Every day we see them now, with the downturn in the economy and the steep rise in the price of gold. Every single one has a need, every one has a story;
“Need to pay my property taxes…”
“Getting divorced, need lawyer money, ring isn’t worth anything anyhow…”
...
The year is 1,200 BC. A man sweats in front of a furnace, a huge pair of bellows resting in his scarred hands. Beside him is a scorched earthen bowl packed hard with sand. He has spent hours shaping a plug of beeswax into an intricate crescent moon shape for a wealthy woman. Afterwards he tamped clean sand around the wax, delicately at first, then harder and harder as the shape became covered.
He places the bowl into the fire, resting it against an earthen wedge so that it is tilted sideways. The heat burns his face and brings tears to his eyes, but he is used to it now. The fire wanes and the man works the bellows again, forcing oxygen into the blaze with swift and powerful strokes. The small plug of beeswax, visib ...
