Pics as promised

[barbarienne]

These are the pieces I sent out to the casting house.

Comments

[kouaidou]

Wow, very nice stuff!

[horace_hamster]

Wow, thanks for sharing that! That is one of the coolest, most informative things I've ever seen.

Have you considered using a small bladed scalpel?

[barbarienne]

There are many different tools for wax work, and different designers use different techniques. I learned a "removal" process that's much like stone sculpting--I start with a chunk of wax and cut things off it. There are also additive processes, where the wax is built up into a shape.

I use files and burrs to get the rough shape, then the X-acto and another, smaller knife (like...tiny). I have some files that are pretty small and good for detail work.

There are some very expensive carving tools on the market, some of which would be very handy for curved bits. I'm saving up for those.

I also have some old dental tools. At some point I'm going to grind those into the shapes I need.

[purdypiedad]

This is completely cool. Thanks so much for sharing!

[vonandmoggy]

Oh so nice! I can't wait to see pictures of the finishes pieces! :)

[wuwt]

Beautiful! Is the wax for the ring carving a hard (but not brittle) wax? It looks like you can carve fine detail without the wax shredding or smooshing. Very cool!

[barbarienne]

Hard but not brittle, yes, exactly. The wax comes in different hardnesses. Most people like the middle-grade, which is a bit easier to work with, but I was initially taught on the hard wax, so I'm used to it. I really should try some pieces with the medium wax.

My old wax instructor was amazing. She could get the finest details and itty-bitty sculpting and perfect smoothness. My models here would have her pointing at all the lumps and bumps and telling me I could make it better. I feel a little slack-ass about sending it in without making it perfect, but OTOH I want it for Xmas, and I've already been working on it for more than a year.