A super simple method to 'cast' simple shapes

[silken]

I don't have an awful lot of equipment in my studio other than the basics and I wanted to find a way to 'cast' small pieces without investing in casting equipment. Firstly, this method is only intended for 'flat backed' shapes or designs that have no detail on the back. Secondly, the results can be rather rough and primitive but I think this adds to the overall appeal. It is not a new technique by any means, just one that I thought I should share because it is so simple therefore great for beginners.

You'll need:

A charcoal block
A small selection of burrs or carving tools
A torch (any torch that can melt small amount of silver/gold is fine, I use a handheld butane torch)
A steel bench block
A few scraps of silver/gold or some casting grain
Borax

I use this method to make lots of tiny little "puffy" hearts and it's fab. First of all, carve a basic shape into your charcoal block with a ball burr or whatever tools you have to hand. Charcoal is very soft so carving it is a doddle. In my case, I carve several little heart shapes into the charcoal with a ball burr. I then add some scrap silver or gold, enough to fill the carving. Sprinkle on some dry powdered borax or whatever flux you have to hand. This helps the metal to melt and flow. Now, using your torch, heat the metal until is starts to ball up and play the flame over the metal until it starts to adapt to the shape of the carving. Don't worry, most of the time at this stage the molten metal just wants to stay in a nice little ball shape but what you need to do is get your steel bench block and plonk it down over the metal. This should help the metal spread into the correct shape and give a nice flat back. After a few seconds, remove the bench block and dig out your metal. It might be reluctant to come out so you may have to dig into the surrounding charcoal. Sometimes the metal just pops out if you turn the charcoal block upside down and give it a whack. When you've got your little casting, pickle it as you usually would.

After pickling, I examine the 'casting' and decide if I want to do any additional finishing. Most of the time I file the little heart shapes just to give them a little more definition. I make the hearts into earring studs by soldering on an earring post. I then either polish them to a mirror shine or use my frosting wheel to make a nice frosted finish.

Simply, easy, slightly primitive but definitely effective. You can create all sorts of simple shapes with minimal equipment and cost. I've tried this with normal soldering blocks also and it works OK but I find the charcoal is much easier to work with with less clean up afterwards.

I'm going to post some pictures of some of the things I've made using this method in the next couple of days when I've taken some photographs.

[SilverBouillon]

Thanks, Emily.
Now I know what to do with my wasted silver! I'm tired of making granules of it. :)
It's possible to carve the simple free shape chain links, I will try.
Also, what if to use plaster of paris flat mold over the charcoal block without carving charcoal? Do you think it may work? Plaster should give more details than charcoal itself, I guess.

[Dennis]

Thanks Emily, that's a great low tech idea. I look forward to seeing your results.

SB, If you are going the plaster of Paris route, I would suggest you get casting investment, which can be heated with a torch once it has dried out. In fact you could set an object in it while wet and then pick it out to leave an open mould.....
Now that we know each other might we call you by your name? Dennis.

[SilverBouillon]

Sorry, Dennis, my name is Lana. :)
Casting investment right now means less burs to buy, and I need them the most. But I have plaster of paris in garage right now :) I can just play around with my scrap rather for fun than for serious work. I do have some coral branches I picked up on the beach a while ago. Exactly like this one (http://www.barclaybutera.com/content/images/thumbs/0000762_coral_shadow_box_1.jpeg) I can save the most of them for investment casting for later, and play with few pieces tomorrow morning.

[Dennis]

Lucky you Lana. We'd have to buy those and be accused of supporting an illegal trade. I'm not sure you could reproduce them easily in a burnable material, but right now I have colleagues who are using photographs like that to etch onto silver. Dennis.

The nearest we have to a sea shore in London is a freshwater pond called the Serpentine. There is a swimming area, but you share it with ducks. Dennis.

[SilverBouillon]

Lucky you Lana. We'd have to buy those and be accused of supporting an illegal trade.
Wow, I had no idea. Next time I will be in Puerto Rico, I will look for them again. It was plenty on the beach there in April. It was totally legal pick up :). I've never seen it here in South Florida, only at the beach store.
I thought about etching already, I just don't know which way would be better: to take a picture and then print it on transfer paper, transfer it with iron on silver, or stamp it directly.

[Goldsmith]

if you want to do simple casting from hard patterns, try using cuttlefish bone as a mold, see; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMI9ANh-7B0

Or as shown on one of Kwant's old forum posts; http://kwantessentials.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/casting-silver-in-cuttlefish-bone.html

James

[SilverBouillon]

if you want to do simple casting from hard patterns, try using cuttlefish bone as a mold. James

James, I should be fun as well, just need to find the cuttlefish somewhere in pet stores. I don't think that charcoal, bone or plaster will give very detailed impression, it's good for simple objects.
At least I reached the learning point where I collected some amount to melt into something. :)

[Anna Wales]

I had some very good quality cuttlefish from Ebay just recently, 1kg of large pieces for £12.99. Sorry Lana it's not much help to you in Florida but for anybody looking for some in the Uk this might be of interest.
It's a fun technique if a little smelly!!

[SilverBouillon]

Emily,
So far I got two nice balls. :) Need to figure out the moment when to cover molten silver to make the shape flat. But it is fun to play.

[SilverBouillon]

Thank you Anna. There are plenty of cuttlefish on ebay under pet category. I'm pretty sure that local pet store has it.

[louisella76]

Thanks for posting Emily - I've been experimenting with cuttlefish recently; I'm getting mixed results, the only consistent thing so far is the smell!! I came across a lot of washed up cuttlefish on a local beach - I didn't manage to find any sea glass which is what I had been looking for but at least I didn't come home empty handed

I am finding the cuttlefish texture shows quite a lot on the pieces I've made so am going to try 'pushing down' (not a technical term I know!) the design before melting the silver

[silken]

I apologise for the not so clear pictures, I've been having a fight with my DSLR...I've not used it in such a long time I'm having to use automatic settings and I couldn't seem to get a sharp picture.

These are the little heart studs I make using the charcoal 'casting' method. They're very dainty, only about 4mm in diameter. As you can see, they're very simple which is why they're so great to make with the charcoal. I've also made little stars and simple roses using this method. I'll post some more pics when I get them.

I've tried cuttlefish casting once before, I need to try it again.

Louisella, I believe "squishing" is the correct technical terminology ;)

4465

[Patstone]

I take my doggies down to the local beach most weekends and find cuttlefish. I have some at home if anyone wants them for just the postage, I can normally get more if the tide is right. PM me with your address.

[silken]

Aww Pat! I've always wanted to live by the sea, I love treasure hunting on the beach. I'm not sure cuttlefish are technically considered treasure but it's much cheaper than buying them! ;)

[Dennis]

Emily, How can you squish more than one heart from one impression, or does too much charcoal pull away? Dennis.

[Patstone]

Trouble is that I love the colour of shells so end up bringing back loads of them. We live in Exeter and go to Exmouth which is about 10 miles away, but if the tide is coming in at the time I take the dogs out, you cant get around the headland, otherwise there is only a small area of beach you can walk dogs, in the summer. in the winter you have miles of beach but its normally really windy so not much fun. I have always lived in South Devon, I was born here and have never lived outside Devon, furtherest away from where I was born is where I live now, Exeter !!!!!! I lived about 500 yards from the beach all my childhood years so went swimming in the sea at around April and was still there until it got too cold to come out and get dressed, usually November.


Aww Pat! I've always wanted to live by the sea, I love treasure hunting on the beach. I'm not sure cuttlefish are technically considered treasure but it's much cheaper than buying them! ;)

[SilverBouillon]

Emily,
your hearts are tiny, and I carved generous hole. I dropped 2mm cz, got something melted.:D
However I got what James told about casting investment.

[silken]

If I'm careful, I can get around two or three hearts out of each carving before the charcoal is completely useless. Sometimes the silver/gold gets itself jammed inside the carving so you have to destroy a bit of the surrounding block. I just make sure to use a decent amount of borax powder and make sure not to overheat the silver/gold. I "squish" the metal down with the steel block when the metal is not molten but glowing and still fairly malleable. Does that make sense? Also, I sometimes use a little bit too much silver/gold scrap on purpose so I get a tiny little 'lip' around the top of the carving when I've squished it. This way, I can grab onto the excess metal and pull it with tweezers. It's easy to remove afterwards. Like I said before, this is by no means a perfect or accurate method of casting but it's fun and simple.

Pat, I know what you mean. I'm a magpie and I love shells and beach stones. The only thing I don't like bringing back from the beach is sand, especially when it's trapped in unspeakable places!

[medusa]

Emily,
your hearts are tiny, and I carved generous hole. I dropped 2mm cz, got something melted.:D
However I got what James told about casting investment.

heh, that looks a bit like my first go with PMC :)

[Goldsmith]

I had a look through my old boxes and found this old silver ring. This was my first attempt at casting in cuttlefish way back when I was an apprentice. It has been cleaned up with a file after casting.

James

4468

[MeadMoon]

Wow! That's really smooth James. This was my first (and only so far) attempt at cuttlefish casting and I left the texture - after all, the moon is rocky :) Next time I will try to get a better crescent shape.

4469

[caroleallen]

I must admit I quite like the texture from cuttlefish but can't abide the smell.

[Dennis]

I do like the texture Elaine and as you say, by now you would give the inside edge a touch with a file. Even as it is I like it for its rugged self. Dennis.

[louisella76]

Louisella, I believe "squishing" is the correct technical terminology ;)

4465

Ahhh of course, silly me! ;)

Purely for entertainment purposes, I thought I'd share my first attempt at delft clay casting this weekend...now this attempt would have impressed me slightly had I been trying to make a weird, misshapen boot...sadly, what I was actually trying to cast was a swallow type bird...I think I may need to make a few changes to the funnel!

4471

[SilverBouillon]

James,
not bad for fish. :)

[silken]

Hehe that definitely has a boot like appeal to it! I think it's quite cute ;)

Did you read Hans Meevis' recent blog post of delft casting? As always, I'm in awe of his work but I really, really like his tutorials:

http://hansmeevis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/delft-casting.html

[ps_bond]

I had a look through my old boxes and found this old silver ring. This was my first attempt at casting in cuttlefish way back when I was an apprentice. It has been cleaned up with a file after casting.

James

4468

I assume the head of the ring is solid? I can't think of a way to cast it hollow unless you were carving cores for the cuttlefish too.

[Goldsmith]

I assume the head of the ring is solid? I can't think of a way to cast it hollow unless you were carving cores for the cuttlefish too.

All solid silver Peter. I used an uncut gold signet ring as a pattern pressed into the cuttlefish.

James

[ps_bond]

Accurate filing doesn't seem to be something that's taught all that often, more's the pity. I'm forming the impression that filing up would be something that would be expected on most pieces in an apprenticeship - would that be a fair assessment?
I'm currently playing with some patterns for fabricated hollow rings and the only way to get the level of finish I want post-forming (and planishing) involves some surface refinement with files.

[Goldsmith]

Accurate filing doesn't seem to be something that's taught all that often, more's the pity. I'm forming the impression that filing up would be something that would be expected on most pieces in an apprenticeship - would that be a fair assessment?
I'm currently playing with some patterns for fabricated hollow rings and the only way to get the level of finish I want post-forming (and planishing) involves some surface refinement with files.

Yes Peter I spent the whole of the first year of my apprenticeship, doing nothing but learning methods of piercing and filing up. We were making regalia for Malaysia and there were hundreds of pressed silver badges and collar links that needed piercing and filing. The photo shows an example of the regalia we were making.

James

4488

[SilverBouillon]

James,
amazing work.Thanks!
(and am I complaining about learning too long? LOL)

[Tabby66]

Peter,
My understanding of the 3 basic skills are piercing, filing & soldering............still learning all 3, but I could not survive without my 3 square & half round for filing up.......As you say, filing is an art to be learned in itself!

[Truffle & Podge]

I take my doggies down to the local beach most weekends and find cuttlefish. I have some at home if anyone wants them for just the postage, I can normally get more if the tide is right. PM me with your address.

ooh ooh does that offer still stand? ;)
Tasha x

[Patstone]

Yes as long as I havent thrown them out, I will have a look.


ooh ooh does that offer still stand? ;)
Tasha x

[LydiaNiz]

I used to do this a lot to make simple forms. Did not know you were supposed to bind charcoal blocks.
Thank God I wear safety goggles and my husband happened to be in the studio with me, resulting exploding block rendered me with a burst eardrum (for the third time) and a hell of a mess!

[Patstone]

Never tried casting but dont think I will bother now !!!!!!!!!!!