Making a mould

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and have a question that I can't find an answer to but hopefully you can help me.

I need to create a mould for a brooch, but the methods I can find on the internet, such as lost wax, require centrifuges or vacuum's.

Is there a way of creating a mould that could be used for a fairly simple brooch shape that can be used with molten silver that doesnt involve using centrifuges or vacuums and is straight forward (or am I being too hopeful)?

Thanks in advance!

all the best

Susan

A little more information would be handy...

Low equipment levels of casting off the top of my head would include cuttlefish, Delft clay, bean casting (a bit random) or steam casting. Cuttlefish you can either carve the cuttlefish bone directly or take an impression of an object (but reproduction will probably not be perfect); Delft clay needs a model and steam casting needs a wax.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Suzedablooze

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and have a question that I can't find an answer to but hopefully you can help me.

I need to create a mould for a brooch, but the methods I can find on the internet, such as lost wax, require centrifuges or vacuum's.

Is there a way of creating a mould that could be used for a fairly simple brooch shape that can be used with molten silver that doesnt involve using centrifuges or vacuums and is straight forward (or am I being too hopeful)?

Thanks in advance!

all the best

Susan

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Just a thought - it is exactly this sort of application that precious metal clay excels at ;)

Hi susan, welcome to the forum, unfortunately i dont have an answer for you though. Sure someone will have though :) :~:

Hi Susan,
Is it for a one-off piece, or a production run?

Nikki

Welcome, BTW:welcome:

Although i make moulds most days mine are used for production and casting so i would be unable to help unless you were more specific about what you making a mould of and what your using it for.

Different moulds will give you different results. Cuttlefish moulding is less quality but for speed and cost effective its cheap.

Vacuum moulds and vulacanizing will give you better quality and a longer life but costs are high for one offs.

Hello and thanks for replying.

I had heard of the cuttle fish method and might try that, although I'm worried it may be a bit too rough.

This is what I'm trying to do.

My brother gave me a hideous (but very heavy) chain of 925 silver [-X - sorry Andrew but it is awful!

I want to melt it down and use the resulting silver to create, firstly, a brooch which is based on a vintage one that I have had for a while. The vintage brooch is a stylised unicorn, but I can modify it to make it even simpler if needed.

Then I would also like to use the silver for other projects, which I haven't yet decided upon.

One thing that would be useful to do with the silver would be to create sheets that I could use to punch or cut out shapes from - is this possible?

Thanks again for your help and hello's!

Suze

I like the look of the delftclay process, it looks pretty straight forward (your user manual is a very good guide).

I will get some of that and give it a go.

I have a kiln and some crucibles so I was going to melt the silver bracelet links down using that (small amounts at a time that is - the crucibles are tiny).

Thank you so much for your help, it is very much appreciated and I'll post a picture of my results (assuming I don't mess it all up of course :)

warmest wishes and thanks

Suze

Just in case in doesn't work you could take your brooch to a casters and the silver chain. They can take the weight of the chain towards the price of the silver in the casting....
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