Lost wax casting

How many times did we wonder how it was made, when we were faced with a huge and perfect bronze statue?
Did we wonder how it was made? Is it possible that the brass buckle we decided to buy was made using the same procedure of the bronze statues? Yes.

The name of Lost Wax draws its origins in ancient times; from the Egyptian civilization to the Chinese one, passing through the Middle East, many people used it to create sculptures and
statues of all shapes and sizes.

The first tools and all the objects of ordinary use were made with the technique of lost wax.

The Story

This creative technique was then handed down over time so from the Greeks to the Byzantines, passing through the Italian Renaissance to the present day and it’s still one of the most commonly used methods for making components and objects in brass, bronze, copper and sterling silver.

This technique has refined over time improving the casting work production; infact over the years, the introduction of welding and the refined assembly techniques have greatly improved the finished
product. Over time there has also been an improvement in materials used for the execution of the lost wax technique, even if the key principles and crucial phases of the processing remained
unchanged.

Let’s briefly summarize the phases of lost wax processing:

• realization of the negative mould in silicone and creation of the buckle or fashion accessory prototype that we want to realize. The mould is fundamental for wax models
• a faithful copy of the wax buckle is made from the mould
• the wax moulds are placed on spaced shafts in order to not to touch each other
• the shafts are inserted into plaster cylinders which are then fired in the oven. Cooking has the dual function of drying the previously described shapes well and dissolving the wax inside.
• when the plaster cast is emptied of the wax, the metal will be melted at high temperatures and poured into the plaster mould filling the spaces left by the wax.
• you have to wait for everything to cool down
• once the metal has cooled down, the buckle will be released and ready to be finished.
• once removed from the tree and frosted, the buckle will be hand-cleaned and galvanized in the chosen colors.

 

The work is now finished and ready to be delivered to the customer.

To know all the details of the production of buckles and fashion accessories in Lost wax, please contact us.