All three versions of PMC may be torch fired. As Tim McCreight
says, the hard part is getting someone to stand there with a torch
to fire PMC Standard for two hours. PMC + takes about ten minutes.
Complete instructions, with color pictures can be found in CeCe
Wire’s book.
Written instructions by Tim McCreight, with drawings, appeared in a
previous issue of Studio PMC and can probbly be read on line at www.PMCGuild.com, go to “Magazine.”
Elaine Luther
Chicago area, Illinois, USA
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
Studio 925; established 1992 @E_Luther
Take the mold the dentist made for you and put it on top of your wax
injector until its warm. Now shoot hot wax onto it and roll it
around coating evenly , then pour off the excess. If you don’t heat
the mold, it won’t receive the wax well. The product your dentist
used is probably not an alginate, but something like Exaflex. I
believe Rio sells a similar two part product. You will be stunned at
the precision of this stuff.
Talk to a dentist - go on, be brave!!! They use an alginate
impression compound which will not hurt the child’s skin and which
only takes a couple of minutes to set. My daughter has recently made
casts of the hands and feet of our new grandson in this way which
show every line and furrow perfectly. To get to a final casting you
may have to use a two stage process and make a plaster cast from the
alginate and then take a mold from that…
As an alternative, dentists also use a two-part silicon moulding
compound which may be good enough to get waxes off directly but I
haven’t tried this. Whatever you use mustn’t damage the child’s
sensitive skin and must set quickly enough so that you can get your
impression before their interest fades!
A number of dental products and techniques are very useful in
jewellery work and it is well worth reading some of the texts on
dental mechanics.
Whatever you use, it would be interesting to have you report back to
this forum as it may help others in the future.
Hi. I have some wax that works pretty well - I haven’t cast a finger
print yet, but I can get a nice impression. (I tried my little guy
tonight) It gets soft with work, but doesn’t get too sticky or
goopy. It would probably be best if you put a base of wax sheet under
it, or some other type of frame. If you work it through plastic or
wore gloves, it would probably be fine. I’d be happy to send you off
some, if you’d like to try it, just contact me off line. I’d love to
tell you what it is, but it is a brick that was given to me a couple
of years ago and I’m not sure myself.
Dear Brent, What a great idea. Today whilst having lunch I discovered
a simple solution to your dilemma. My lunch consisted of various cold
meats, pickles, wafer biscuits and cheese. One of the cheeses, an
Australian, ‘Margaret River’ cheddar cheese, creamy smooth, rich and
flavourful look for it, indeed demand it, was wrapped in wax. I ate
the cheese and took the wax and melted it to remove the stickiness
of the cheese oils and found a wax that will take a perfect
impression of my fingerprint without sticking. This wax is so soft
it can be used quite cool so ther is no danger of any damage to a
little finger.
This way you not only get the raw material free but enjoy the
by-product !!! We had experience of cheese waxes many years ago when
a father brought his young son with a turtle he had formed from the
cheese wax to our factory, to ask sceptically “could we turn this
wax into gold or silver” ? Some mysteries still remain today.
Cheese wax has it’s place in the world and not only around cheese! A
merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all Orchidians.
I’ve got two ways of doing this; I guess you’ll have to base your
decision of which one to use on the age of the children in question.
First and foremost, you’ll need to apply a releasing agent to the
hands; one that’ll permit both an accurate impression and a
hassle-free release. My recommendation: a lanolin- or
petrolatum-based hand lotion. (Massage one coat in well, to seal the
pores, then follow with a second, lighter coat, to maintain the
moisture level and insulate the skin.) Next, apply a coat of pure
paraffin wax – from below the wick of a lit candle is probably the
easiest way – then have the children press their wax-laden fingers
against a sheet of a slighly harder wax, like the pink sheets
available with so many carving kits.
As an alternative to the above (especially if the kids are so young
that the approaching flame would freak them out), you can prep the
hands, as above, then separate the fingertips with cotton balls and
apply three coats of clear nailpolish (wait about 2-3 minutes
between coats), then peel these off of the fingers and C.A.-glue the
shiny sides of them down onto sheets of your favorite modeling wax
(that is, print-impressed side up), which you’ve already carved into
the shape of the pendant she desires. The glue and polish will both
burn out completely, when cast. Just be sure not to use a smoothing
or surface-polishing agent on your wax(es) before casting, or you’ll
lose all details! (I’d seen these tried in a shop in NY, some years
back, when the underside of a particular leaf was the finish sought.
I think you’ll be pleased with the results, either way.) Let us know
how you make out with it, okay?
All my best,
Douglas Turet
Turet Design
P.O. Box 242
Avon, MA 02322
Tel. (617) 325-5328
eFax (928) 222-0815 anotherbrightidea@hotmail.com