Casting silver for jewellery.
I want to enthuse my readers to become silversmiths themselves.
So this article is all about the technique of casting, i.e. melting silver in various receptacles to form shapes.
Casting is one of the things that you can choose to do if you attend a Metalsmithing for Beginners workshop with me.
It’s great fun, especially the random methods of casting, such as water casting, rock salt casting and pasta casting.
You get to play with fire and water! What could be better?
The flower heads in these earrings are made using the water casting method, so let’s have a look at that.
4 steps to creating silver flower heads using the water casting method:
Step 1. Because the ‘flowers’ are quite small, I use a glass jam jar filled with cold water. If I wanted bigger shapes, I would use a larger receptacle, with more water.
Step 2. I take a longish piece of silver wire in reverse action tweezers (see pictures – they open when you press on the handles and remain closed when you don’t) and put it aside while I light the torch.
Step 3. Now I pick up the wire in the tweezers and hold the end of the silver wire at a height above the jar, pick up the torch, making sure I keep the flame over the water, and raise it to the end of the wire.
Step 4. I hold the tip of the wire in the flame until it forms a molten ball and keep it there until the weight of the ball causes it to fall off the wire and drop into the water (see image below of a red streak falling from the wire – that’s the ball). The thermic shock created by the molten metal hitting the cold water causes it to contract, forming random bowl or flower shapes.
Repeat until you have enough ‘bowl’ or ‘flower’ shapes for the item you want to use them in.
There is an element of trial and error with casting, but if any of the casts aren’t quite right, they can simply be added to other scraps of silver and melted again, this time in a crucible, and poured into water, or some other medium to create other shapes. One of the great things about metalsmithing is that nothing need be wasted.
Future blogs will look at other methods of casting, so do come back!
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