Behind the Scenes
Many of my jewellery pieces are made with an ancient technique called lost wax casting, which has been used to create jewellery for at least 5000 years. Here is a brief rundown of the process.
I start with an idea. Most of my inspiration comes from nature, and sometimes I will have a finished piece of jewellery pop into my mind ready to be carved, like my Endless Ivy rings. Other times I will develop an idea through a few iterations of sketches, or choose a particular gemstone and create a design around that. Usually I have a theme in mind that I try to express with the piece.
Once I have a design, I begin to carve it out of jewellery wax using a scalpel, a wax file, a hot wax pen and lighter, and some other small tools. I love this process - it is really meditative for me, and a whole morning can fly by in what feels like minutes, sculpting and forming the wax until I’m happy with the design.
Carving pieces with my wax pen and a lino cutting tool
Once the wax is finished, I send it to my caster, a small business based on the remote west coast of Scotland who have been doing this work for 40 years. They join the wax to a "tree" of other wax pieces and create a plaster mould of it, melting the wax away to leave a cavity in the shape of the piece. They pour molten silver into the plaster mould, and then once it’s set, wash away the plaster to reveal the silver tree.
A finished Endless Ivy Wide Ring
But hold on - how do you get more than one of a piece, if the wax is lost? Once the silver piece is polished, but before any stones are set, I send the piece back to the casters again for one more step. They make a reusable mould of the piece out of rubber, and this mould can then be used to create identical wax versions of the original piece. Then these waxes can be used in the same process as before to be cast into silver.
Waxes of my slim ivy rings, and moon pendants ready to set stones in
As I said in my last post, as soon as I tried this process I knew it was my thing. To me it combines so many of the skills and techniques I’ve gained from other crafts, from drawing to modelling with clay and carving lino for printmaking. It provides so much freedom for creativity, and the final results really bring me joy.
I hope you found this interesting! If you have any questions about my process, please feel free to contact me.