Although I can’t say I have a lot of casting experience, so take
this with a grain of salt.
I have found that the water to investment ratio is wrong. Usually I
have added to much water in an attempt to get the fine detail of the
model. You want to add as little additional water above the
manufacturers recommended ratio for sturdy items as needed to achieve
the detail. Unfortunately, for me anyway, I don’t know how to guage
this except by trail an error.
You want to add as little additional water above the manufacturers recommended ratio for sturdy items as needed to achieve the detail. Unfortunately, for me anyway, I don't know how to guage this except by trail an error.
Scott, get yourself a simple electronic kitchen scale. They can be
set to grams, and usually handle several pounds capacity. Use the
scale to weigh both the powder and the water. The tare button on the
scale lets you weigh directly into the mixing bowl for the powder,
and a seperate container for the water, so you can get the ratios
exactly where you want before mixing the two together. This will
eliminate the errors. Being able to control the ratio so it’s
exactly what you want each time will also let you eliminate this as
an unknown variable if you have unexpected problems.
And don’t, as a general rule, use more water than the manufacturer’s
ratio for delicate things. For Kerr Satin cast and some others,
that’s 40:100. More than that won’t help casting delicate items and
gets weaker. More water might help get bubbles out (thinner mix) if
your vac pump isn’t quite doing the job, but as you say, you have to
be cautious doing this or you risk investment breaks. It also extends
working time, which can mean it sits too long after pouring the
flask, which can give you water marks on the casting. These look
like thin, slightly raised random meandering lines on the cast
surface. Almost like there were thin cracks in the investment, but
it’s not cracks, it’s the water/powder mix starting to separate
before it sets, leaving those marks on the casting. You can, if you
use more water, speed up the setting time again by increasing water
temperature a bit. Trial and error will show you how much hotter
gives you how much speed-up for the mix ratio you use. But this
doesn’t compensate for the weaker investment you get from more water.
So do this with care.
Hope that helps.
Peter Rowe
My opinion is that filigree is a design style. It can be cast or fabricated.
Perhaps it’s both. Many, if not most, words in the dictionary have
multiple meanings. Thus,
A design style, describing the look, not the technique.
it’s also the specific version of that design style that requires
the traditional techniques of filligree fabrication, and here it
describes that specific technique as well as the resulting style.
Peter
My opinion is that filigree is a design style. It can be cast or fabricated. I have cast fine filigree. Experience over time allows for compensations. The design may be thin and fine, but the depth may be greater to allow the metal to flow to complete the design. At the school I went to, the instructor said if you can see it, you can cast it
Filigree has nothing to do with design. It is a technique which is
used to make large voluminous pieces with minimum of metal. If
someone would twist my elbow and forced me to come up with
characterization, I would say it is an engineering technique.
Two twisted 0.5mm wires will fill as much perceived volume as 1mm
wire of the same finished length, but twisted wires will be stronger
and lighter.
As far as been able to cast everything. That may be true, or may be
not. All depends on point of view. There are right applications of a
technique and there are wrong ones. Faberge used casting in
manufacturing his Easter Eggs, but all filigree in his shop was done
by hand.
There is a saying that owning a hammer does not make you a
carpenter. I will paraphrase it by saying that owning a casting
machine and been able to fake real techniques with it, does not make
you a goldsmith.
Leonid Surpin
it's also the specific version of that design style that requires the traditional techniques of filligree fabrication, and here it describes that specific technique as well as the resulting style.
Yeah, but what are you going to call a piece of jewelry with fine
wires making a pattern than has been cast?
Richard Hart G.G.
Denver
it’s also the specific version of that design style that requires
the traditional techniques of filligree fabrication, and here it
describes that specific technique as well as the resulting style.
Yeah, but what are you going to call a piece of jewelry with fine wires making a pattern than has been cast?
Your choice, Richard. As I suggested, the word filigree can apply to
the design style, regardless of how it was made. So if you want to
call your fine wire design filigree, go ahead, if that seems to best
describe it. Or, choose another term. lacework, wire weave, whatever
suits your fancy and fits the piece. There are some style names that
specify a particular method of production, and perhaps once, the word
filigree did too. But these days, in common usage at least, it’s no
longer specific to just the manual fabrication methods with fine
wires. You can try and be a purist, of course, and buck the trends.
This, I’ve noted as I’ve gotten older, seems common with my
generation by now, and my parents and grandparents generations before
us, in trying to resist the usual modifications to and evolution of
language that younger generations always seem to add. In general,
despite the outrage expressed by purist older generations regarding
terrible usage of language by the young, and no doubt shameful
ignorance of tradition… well, the language and it’s use seems to
evolve anyway. Fight it, or learn it and use it, going with the flow.
Your choice.
How about this choice: Consider all that Edwardian era and art deco
era stamped white gold and stamped or hand pierced jewelry that
consists of lots and lots of delicate pierced (either by a die, or by
hand) lacework, often decorated on the thin lines with lots of
millegrain work. The end result is not all that different from the
patterns on the individual wires of hand made classic filigree, and
is clearly in the same design category as classic filigree, if one
ignores the usually more geometric deco styles rather than the
somewhat paisley sorts of patterns of classic fabricated filigree.
I’ve seen such pieces more than a few times, described with the word
filigree. Being fairly knowledgeable about jewelry, I find myself
then fully understanding what is meant. Is the word wrong? it conveys
to me, at least, the correct Should I be angry that the
word might not be technically correct? Or just happy for the
Like I said, Call it whatever works best for you, Richard. If you’re
more comfortable adding the word “cast”, or other descriptors to the
word filigree, or using other words entirely, be my guest. I’m not a
member of the grammar police. Just a user of the language. If your
description tells me what the thing looks like and is, I’m happy. if
it deceives me into believing the piece is something other than what
it is, I’m not. Take it from there.
Peter Rowe
Somebody said that a teacher told them that “if you can see it, you
can cast it”. Lost the real quote somewhere in the Orchid mail. That
sounds good, and on an absolute level it’s true, but it’s not true
enough. The real thing is what I say, which I heard long ago: “You
can cast anything ~with the proper spruing~”. Sometimes - even often
Model making is different than jewelry making - there are issues to
know about.
Oh, yeah - Filagree is wires put into a pattern, generally sprinkled
or washed with powdered solder and fired or torched. We all know
that - I havea lovely Peruvian filagree slipper someone gave me long
ago.
That the industry and the general public also use the term in a
generic sense to describe any finely detailed wire work (sometimes
diestruck, even) is also something we all know. Well, almost all, I
guess.