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Creation of a Piece
– Making a Master Mold |
Step 1 - Concept
a) Concept is drawn on paper. Sometimes designs are free formed / free carved.
b) Transfer the design from paper onto wax using a hard pencil to push through the paper leaving an impression on the wax. Travis uses a wax pen to hold the pattern in place while he makes his design impression.
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Step 2 - Transfer
a) The final impression of the design on wax.
b) Travis then does a rough cut of the wax design using a jeweler saw (with wax blade). |
Step 3 – Roughing Out Design
a) Travis continues to rough out the design using files, burs, and hand carving tools (Wolf Tools and various homemade tools) to create a clean wax model
b) The final wax model |
Step 4 – Raw Casting
a) Raw silver casting is made. It is whitish in appearance due to the investment (a casting plaster) from the lost wax process. |
Step 5 – Inspection
a) Check the raw casting for blemishes.
b) Clean up and perfections are made of the new piece. Travis adds accents, engraving lines and details to the new piece. |
Step 6 – Casting and Clean up
a) A final polish to clean off excess investment and to give it a fine polish. This process is important because the cleaner the master mold, the less work you will have in the production process.
b) Travis then solders a sprue to the silver casting. The sprue creates an entry point in the mold to inject the wax. |
Step 7 – Molding
a) select a mold tray and pack the mold with silicone rubber (Travis uses the brand, Castaldo Gold). In this process you must ensure that you fill every indention and opening in the mold to ensure that every little detail is captured in the mold. |
Step 8 – Volcanizer (hot press)
a) Place the mold tray into the Volcanizer for 45 minutes to 1 hour to melt the silicone rubber around the raw silver casting. The Volcanizer heats up to roughly 300 degrees depending on the type of rubber and thickness.
b) When you remove the rubber from the mold tray you have a solid block of rubber which has melted and encased your piece. |
Step 9 – Extraction – Final step
a) Cut the rubber mold to extract the piece. This rubber mold will be used to create multiple waxes for production. The piece that is removed from the rubber mold is then placed in a safe place never to be used again except for the rubber molding process (described in steps 7-9). A new rubber mold would need to be made in the event it becomes damaged or worn out.
b) Final reproduction of the Master. |
