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Thread: Is there anyone out there that can do one off centrifugal casting of a flower?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2020
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    Default Is there anyone out there that can do one off centrifugal casting of a flower?

    Hello! I am brand new to the site and somewhat a fraud. I am NOT from the jewellery world!! *shriek. I am actually from the world of cake making which is far easier than the world of jewellery making and sadly with far more calories! I am looking to make metal castings of organic items like flowers but so far I have only found large companies who make car parts etc. Is there anyone here on the forum who does centrifugal casting of flowers who I could comission?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Elizabeth.

  2. #2
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    Jul 2009
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    Romsey
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    What you probably want is a company that'll do lost wax casting & burnout of organic materials; the burnout can be fraught sometimes as sometimes they don't fully decompose. Flowers should be OK for the most part, although they can be a little thin - the common solution to that is to paint wax (strictly casting wax, but beeswax was used for centuries) onto the back of the petals to make them a bit thicker. This will help the molten metal flow into the cavity left in the investment plaster.

    There's quite a few casters do this - Jewelery Casting Scotland, to give one example.

  3. #3
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    A common alternative for a one off, is electro forming, which deposits a thin layer of metal onto the item. This can probably be sent out to a jewellery electro forming company, or quite feasibly done by you, if you intend to pursue this route.
    https://www.google.com/search?client...+for+jewellers. Dennis

  4. #4
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    Jan 2020
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    Thank you both for your responses. I will look into both of your suggestions and see what I come up with! And any more ideas are very welcome!

    All the best,

    Elizabeth.

  5. #5
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    Mar 2011
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    What type of flower is it ?

  6. #6
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    Jan 2020
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    Ideally a rose but I think it might be impossible as the petals are so thin and the burnout of a larger flower leave ash to mix with the metal.

  7. #7
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    Aug 2010
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    England
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    You can always make a rose from sheet, like these ones I made in the past.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Goldsmith; 20-01-2020 at 03:14 PM.

  8. #8
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    Dec 2014
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    Do you wan to copy a existing item or just make a rose from "metal" if you just want to make a rose form metal then it just needs to be made in wax, then a plaster cast made from that, the wax will burn out, if you want to make many copies then once you have the original cast, you can the take a rubber mold from that and that can be injected with wax, you can then assemble them together and make a lost wax casting of several at a time
    have a look at this and it will hopefully make more sens than I have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7PluDOng3Y

    If it is just a one off the as Goldsmith details above, it is not all that different to the way you would make one from sugar
    Last edited by china; 20-01-2020 at 03:21 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Central London
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    Good idea bob, a sugar one could easily be reproduced in metal by a caster, particularly if they offer finishing services. Dennis.

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