This winter I was able to take some classes at the Lillstreet Art Center. I took a few classes in Lost Wax Casting. This is a process where you take a special jewelers wax to form your piece of jewelry, created a cast of it that later has molten metal sucked into it using centrifugal force. The metal replaces the wax inside the cast leaving you with a awesome piece of jewelry. Since the class ended I have been getting my pieces done at the Casting House here in Chicago until I get my dream studio in Oregon.
The piece is shown here in both its wax and silver form. I hand carved this using jeweler's files and Wolf Carving Tools. I did not need to apply heated wax to this piece but in the tree pendant and the dragonfly small beads of hot wax were added to that tail and branches.
I wanted to create a molten metal look with this set of rings. These were made from thin sheets of wax wrapped around dowels and then joined by heating the wax with metal tools and a small lamp. 
For bigger pieces I have to cast them in several parts. A dragonfly that I did was done in six separate parts. I have also been working on a tree pendant and carved my first setting for a Lake Michigan Stone. 
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