Antique intaglio impressions

I have seen others have good luck using polymer clay to make
impressions of intaglios, carving into stone opposite of cameos, but
I want to avoid 2 stages. I also have not had good luck removing the
clay from the glass intaglio without warping the images. The best
impession I have obtained is from Kerr Extrude Wash, but I then would
need to make another mold to get a positive, and I cringe at doing a
mold of a mold. I have bought Protoplast as suggested, a 24" x 24"
sheet, and I have made one attempt, and it’s gonna take more attempts
to be sure that is good stuff.

I am still looking for a material to make a great impression of an
intaglio. This is NOT a casual question. I have used sculpey,
parafin, injection wax, sealing wax, hot glue, sprue wax and do not
get consistent or good results. It seems that with a larger intaglio
in a 1.5 x 1 inch oval there is just too much to go wrong. I still
hope to get serious with the Protoplast, but I was not pleased with
the single attempt, as it left the ripples in the flat surface
because it does not cool instantly.

I have talked to customer service at Kerr who did not even read my
questions well. I had to ask twice if Extrude Wash could be burned
out, and then when I asked if there was another material to use,
they said just use injection wax in the extrude wash, but that would
just get me another negative. I have talked to owners of other
companies at other times who were more than gracious like what to use
as a release agent for Castaldo Pink. The anwer was paste wax. I’m
going to have to give up and get more Castaldo Pink!

Jay,

Have you tried any of the dental impression materials like the
alginates? They are designed for highly detailed, non-shrinking “in
situ” impressions, and may give you what you need to get the
impressions you want.

Just a thought…

Karen Goeller
No Limitations Designs
Hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewelry
www.nolimitations.com

Dear J See:

Since you only need a one-sided impression, I’ve always found the 2
part epoxy material used in the dental industry for making
impressions for crowns. Check with your dentist, I’m sure he/she
would sell/give you some to try. Simply mix it up per instructions
and press the stone face down into it, wait for it to firm up and you
have a mold from which you can make a few waxes by melting flightly
flexible wax into it(the mold dosen’t last for more than 2 or 3
waxes). Now you have a perfect duplicate of the intaglio or any other
one-sided piece.

Hope this helps,
Steve Klepinger