Hi Orchid,
A friend of mine gave me a nice little sea urchin shell with the
idea that it could be cast as a pendant. I enlarged the hole in the
back, cleaned it out, coated it with mod-podge and made an rtv mold.
I should have thickened it up with some wax or clay because it was
too thin to make a decent wax and I ended up cutting the mold to
shreds trying to get it to fill. In the end I got one good wax out
of about a hundred, so I thickened that one and successfully cast it
in silver. Now I see that it would make a fantastic locket, and I
would like it to be reproducable. My question is should I make
another mold of the now thickened cast shell and then fabricate the
back and hinge of the locket from sheet wax + tube to fit the wax
from the new mold, then make an rtv mold of the wax back/hinge part?
Or should I make the mold from the cast shell, cast more of them and
then fabricate the back/hinge part in silver separately for each
shell?
Or
should I make the back/hinge part and the bail in silver first, then
make molds from the silver masters? Also there is the issue of a
catch, I have an idea but not sure. Does anyone have a suggestion?.
Thanks,
Douglas