Hello I am very new to all of this!

Hi all

I have been a collector of bits and bobs of scrap silver over the years, always had an interest in jewellery and, with the arrival of my first child have come to the conclusion I want to make a cast of his hand out of sterling silver.

All this brought me, in a very roundabout way, to this site which seems to have an excellent knowledge base.

I'll have a nose around and see if I can find places to start my research into the list of things I would like to achieve in the coming years, but if anyone has any pointers I would gratefully accept them.

1) The best way of making a cast for a baby's hand (sand, presumably);
2) The most appropriate melting furnace for a very amateur (at this stage) operation;
3) A beginners guide to making silver jewellery

As I say I will nose around, nothing worse than a new person asking all the questions from the FAQ page!

Chris

Hi Chris, welcome to the mad house,
I do not do a lot of casting so those more au fait with the process may correct me a hand even a baby's hand is going to be a big chunk of silver, the first problem will be making the mould getting him/her be still for around 15-20 mins for the gel to set
something like Alginate, then you can make a wax cast to use in sand or investment (plaster).
I strongly suggest that you Google the the process of lost wax casting, also sand casting, so you know what you are in for, it can be fairly costly for just a "one off" although if you really want get into it the cost will be overcome.

Thinking about it, I would say the most economical of silver would be to do just the palm, or back of the hand, and fingers as a mould in silicone, which is stable and permanent. Then use electroforming to create a thin shell. Welcome to the forum, Dennis.

Hi Chris
I can’t answer any of your casting questions but like Bob my initial,thought was that’s a lot of silver.
There are many great books on making jeweller6 but I’d suggest a few classes to gain the basics would be really helpful

Definitely alginate for the mould; have a look at life casting kits on EBay for supplies. Apologies if this is suck-egg advice: Do NOT use plaster of Paris for life moulding - the stuff is horrifically exothermic and I know of more than one case where severe burns have been caused.

Once you've got the mould it shouldn't be too bad to get a wax done - I'd suggest not casting it as a solid as it'll be a huge chunk of metal (with attendant shrinkage issues). Other options include using bronze (or other metal) filled resin or having the wax electroformed to build up a thick layer of metal over the wax.

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Originally Posted by ChrisH

I want to make a cast of his hand out of sterling silver

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I have a cast of my granddaughter's hand and foot in glass and this was done by making an imprint of hand and foot into sand and then the glass artist poured a lump of molten glass onto the imprint. Is this the sort of thing you are looking to do or do you want a complete hand?

That sounds lovely Alastair

Yes I like it. I watched the glass artist do it the sand that sticks to the class partially melts and the patterns of light are nice.

Attachment 12428

That will be a family heirloom for sure. Dennis.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alastairduncan

Yes I like it. I watched the glass artist do it the sand that sticks to the class partially melts and the patterns of light are nice.

Attachment 12428

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Lovely having the translucent quality but then I’m really partial to glass

I've also seen, close up, at the International Festival of Glass a life size small lamb in glass, which had silver encased inside. I'm not sure if this is useful or not Chris, but thought I'd mention it.

Thanks all for the contributions and pointers.

I am not too concerned about the volume of silver (I have some kilo bars and I can't see his little hand being any more voluminous than one of them) but the shrinkage issue may be a concern. It has taken me two months to get to the point of logging back in, so I had better just crack on with the alginate before he gets any bigger!

Lovely glass footprint by the way

Chris

Hi Chris, it's not so much about the amount of silver as your ability to melt and pour such a large ingot. Even melting small amounts of silver with jewellers' equipment can be quite tricky.