Aka, I must be nuts. If there wasn’t enough proof already, this nails it.
February 16, 2021. Wow, look at this necklace on Antiques Roadshow. That is beautiful. $30K?
Necklace up close. Alternating spearmint-like leaves and posts suspending coral- or salmon-colored round stones.
My quick diagram. About 40 repetitions, perhaps 1.5 inch-long pieces.
Step 1: Make a 2-D Blank. I’ve had some sculpting wax sitting around since my last sculpting project. It’s got what must be a very high heat capacity (doesn’t melt overly quickly) but incredible toughness to carve or drop on the floor.
My last sculpting project. This is a 3-inch tall, personalized portrait of a local art dealer who carried my chess set for a while… him as the king in the set. This is the bronze, cast from my wax model. http://www.jackbellis.com/chess/
Step 1 Completed
March 1, 2021. Step 2: Getting Some More Definition. Hmmm. It’s showing that my proportions need work. Spearmint, not rosebud leaf. Longer stalks. Yeh, yeh, yeh, everyone’s an expert.
Step 3: Removing mass, adding contours so leaves look like leaves and pipes look like pipes. Wow, this details stuff it hard. But I seem to remember doing it before reading glasses.
My last really detailed piece, before the chess-set king, that is. OMG, 1983??? Thirty-eight years ago! That’s gotta be a frickin typo. http://www.jackbellis.com/art/
Hmmm. Felt I needed to make it longer in overall proportions.
But apparently it needs to be much smaller (while still having a long ratio)
And reduce it yet again. Looks like I made a big mistake not starting from exact size. You know what the biggest lie in the world is? “Live and learn.” :) But I feel I’m there. One-and-a-half inches it is. Time for details.
Step 7, defined the final shape. Hmmm, it’s kind of squat compared to the lithe proportions of the original.
Step 8, start learning pewter casting. March 2021.
Skip Ahead Eight Months
Janurary 30, 2022, eight months later. OK, I feel like I’ve learned enough about pewter casting to push ahead. Lots of technique to develop about venting and quality, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Final art. Decided to put a brass rod through wax to maintain hole for string. Either genius or epic fail, only time will tell.
FIrst half of mold, and a quick cast into that half. Not too encouraging.
Preparing to pour the second half of the mold, sprues for the pewter to reach all corners. I’m almost certain that I’ll have to do secondary (final) sculpting of the pewter casting to accomplish the necessary fineness of surface detail. Wax just does not hold flat enough surfaces for the reflectivity of metal. The leaf, being nature, might be OK but not the rest of it.
