For those of you who follow me on social media, you will probably have seen my slow growing range of sand cast pieces and most of the time you'll find me saying something along the lines of "did I tell you that I love casting?" etc etc.
This blog will be a self-indulgent piece on how much I really do love casting! I'll give a brief explanation of the process and hopefully justify why the price of sand cast pieces are slightly higher than my usual pieces.
First of all, I started my silversmithing journey with the full intention of getting into sand casting. But first I had to get to grips with basic skills like soldering and polishing which is when I started a course in Swansea. While I was learning, I was slowly starting a collection of tools I'd need to start casting. Little did I know how expensive it would all be! But slowly slowly I got a good collection together, alas, as I wasn't experienced in the slightest, I didn't always get the ring things for the job (insert slapping face emoji here!!).
I found some truly inspirational sand casters online and I OBSESSED over their YouTube videos and Instagram reels, surely by now I should be an absolute pro when it comes to casting, however, it turned out practise was what was needed, not just YouTube!
After lots of practise, failed attempts and exploding stones, I was able to create a heart and a blob! I made a heart ring, one which (nearly 3 years later has not been reproduced!) and I felt like I'd climbed Everest!!
The tools I finally ended up with which fitted the purpose for me:
- Blow torch (I had to buy two before I found 'The one')
- Metal ring moulds (I also bought multiple before I found the one I use every time)
- Talcum powder to sprinkle on the sand
- Oxygen
- Propane gas
- Welders mask
- Clay sand
- Tools to create the air holes and space for the sprue
- A whole lot of pieces to create the shapes!
Once I had found my groove with casting, I started to incorporate stones. A process called 'cast in place' where you gently push the stones into the sand and then they become encased in sterling silver when the molten silver flows through the impression. That is the plan anyway! In reality, you need to follow a chart of hardness. All stones have different tolerances to heat. The hardest being diamond. The scale is called the Mohs scale of hardness, which quickly became my bible! I went though so many stones, many of which were not hard enough and would shatter under the heat, others would loose their colour!
Once a piece has been created, it's then time to tidy it up, overspill of silver gets carved off, and rough bits get filed and sanded down to make the piece smooth enough to be touching the skin.
Then the piece will get cleaned and either polished or oxidised to darken it.
In a nutshell... that is it!!! I have recently created a piece that has had ashes incorporated into it, making it an incredibly special memorial piece. See my social media (Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok) to see a reel on how it was made.
So as you can see, the process involved is much more complex, time consuming and also tool heavy in comparison to some of my other pieces.
I really hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed typing it! Thank you for reading this far! x