So today I decided to do another pendant. And it went well. I’m happy with my progress, like I’m gaining skill (like I want.)
Metal flows through the mold
Flowing swiftly ’til it turns cold
Shapes cast from a fleeting master
I see you freed in your sprue tree
Polished to a shine
Cast metal, frozen solid.
I’m thinking that I’m going to try sandcasting as an approach for doing lots of these. I takes a lot of time to prepare these as one-offs of wax, to sprue them, invest them, burn them out, and pour them. 2-3 hours each. I think by sand-casting, I can get that down to 30 minutes for batches of ten. That’d be awesome.
Hopefully in a couple weeks, I’ll have the materials on hand to do that. See you soon…
Burning Man, Photography, Ramblings, Things I made, casting
I’ve been messing around a little with casting metal for a while. When I was a kid, I would make molds out of cuttlefish bones, and cast lead into them. I did this in my room, often without the knowledge of my mother. I only caught the rug in my room on fire a few times, and never seriously. I’d taken to keeping a cup of water handy for putting out the rug.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I went to BurningMan this year, and had a good time, and an experience filled time. I was gifted an aluminum necklace, round, with a man in the middle, arms held high in the stereotypical burner way. I really appreciated that necklace, and treasure it.
And so I decided that I’d enjoy making pendants of my own to gift to people who really showed themselves to be special folks, or for those doing a really great thing. I also decided that I could make these myself, as is my wont. So I made a first one, a little man, arms held high.
I like to do things myself. Things that are interesting to me, or are difficult. It’s pleasant for me to take such a project and make it real. I love being able to say (and I think of Gir from Invader Zim here), “I made it myself!”
Burning Man, Things I made, casting