Sunday, August 07, 2011

Fun Day- Sun Pendant

My sun pendant necklace- The pendant is cast from a wax carving.

First, I carved the sun pendant out of wax, and attached several wax sprues (the funnels that allow the molten metal to reach every part of the pendant). Then I suspended the wax in investment, which hardens kind of like cement. Next, I burned out the wax in a very hot kiln. When the mold was complete, I poured molten metal (I chose rosey bronze), into the mold and let it cool. Next I broke the hardened investment off and cleaned up the casting, which came out dirty and grungy looking. After cleaning it up and cutting off the metal sprues, I polished and tumbled it.

After I was satisfied with the appearance of the sun, I chose the red Jasper cabachon and glued it into the bezel cup. Although I am not completely satisfied with the beads and structure of the necklace, I do like my sun quite a bit. I have some thoughts and ideas circling in my brain as to how I will change the necklace itself, and I'm probably going to change it up a bit in a couple of weeks.



2 comments:

Susan Stevenson said...

That's beautiful! Love the way the sun rays are so wavy.. as if they're moving.

Susan Stevenson said...

That's beautiful! Love the way the sun rays are so wavy.. as if they're moving.