Okay, this is probably very dumb, but has anyone ever tried to put
wax sheet and paper or cardboard through a rolling mill? Do you think
that the design in the cardboard would make an impression in the wax?
I ask this because a couple of days ago I saw a pair or earrings
which - I think - was made with wax sheet. However, the metal had a
beautiful design to it. Obviously, the design had to be on the wax
before it was formed into an irregular form and then casted. It left
me thinking. Best, Will
Hi Will;
Possibly what you saw was “roller printed” metal, in which case your
observation and hypothesis is not so far off. It may have been done
directly in the metal as opposed to in wax and cast. Charles
Lewton-Brain has done a lot of work with that method. Here’s an
example, although the technique has more permutations and
applications than this:
Take a fully annealed sheet of metal, such as silver (it works on
brass, copper, gold, too). Find two pieces of copper or brass, I
prefer about 18-20 gauge. They’ll need to be slightly larger in both
dimensions than the silver sheet (or metal of your choice). Place
any or all of the following materials on the silver sheet:
Pieces and shapes cut from cardfile stock (file cabinet folders are
made of this), lace, window screen, burlap, dry leaves, string (loop
it around a bit), you get the point? tough materials, flat but with
interesting shapes and/or textures.
Place a sheet of copper under the silver, and one on top (which will
cover the materials you are using to “print” with). Hold this
sandwich together, put it in the rolling mill, then tighten the
rollers down slightly snug. Loosen them enough to remove the stack,
then tighten down about 1/2 turn. Try rolling this stack through the
mill. If you can’t, then loosen the rollers till you can. There
needs to be quite a bit of pressure to get a good print, so expect to
have to lean on the handle a bit to get it through. You may need to
experiment with varying the pressure according to metal, printing
materials, etc. You’ll be amazed at the kind of detail you’ll get.
Meanwhile, perhaps some others here can offer literature sources on
roller printing, since I’m away from my library at the moment.
David L. Huffman
I have used a rolling mill to thin out wax wire and some wax sheet -
I don’t see why you couldn’t roll it with something to take on an
impression. Michelle
creating what you want in platinum, gold and silver
Hi, Will, Putting wax through a rolling mill is a very low-cost
proposition. Why not just try it? I’d love to hear how it goes. On
the other hand, I could just try it…
–No�l
Will
I think I’ve done something along this line. Had some old PMC, rolled
it out nice and flat and drew a pattern on it with a pencil, thereby
leaving an indented impression. Baked it to harden it and rolled wax
sheet onto it, the pink stuff that you can warm in your hand to
soften it. Cut the patterned piece out, bent it to the shape I
wanted and sent it (and several repeats) off to the casters. The nice
thing is the pattern is then repeatable.
Cheers, Renate
http://www.silvershop.net.au Our new website, check it out!
Look at the “Model Master” Gesswein, Rio or where ever one version
is castable the other is metal backed so that it will easily impress
wax. Mark Chapman
I must tell you that I created quite a mess when I did this. It was
several years ago so I don’t remember all the details but I know I
used the soft pink sheet wax and I think I tried using a paper
towel to make the impression I wanted. The wax tore the paper as I
ran it through the mill and it stuck to my rolling mill. It was
quite hard to remove afterwards. Now that I have found this group,
someone could probably have told me what to use to remove the wax
more easily but hopefully this warning will keep you from needing
that
Jennifer
NW Oregon
Hi Will,
You can run soft sheet wax through a rolling mill and impress all
kinds of patterns on to it – paper, cloth, leaves, etc. (though I
would use either a pasta roller or a rolling pin instead).
–Terri
Hi Will,
You can run soft sheet wax through a rolling mill and impress all
kinds of patterns on to it – paper, cloth, leaves, etc. (though I
would use either a pasta roller or a rolling pin instead).
–Terri
Will I think I’ve done something along this line. Had some old PMC,
rolled it out nice and flat and drew a pattern on it with a pencil,
thereby leaving an indented impression. Baked it to harden it and
rolled wax sheet onto it, the pink stuff that you can warm in your
hand to soften it. Cut the patterned piece out, bent it to the shape
I wanted and sent it (and several repeats) off to the casters. The
nice thing is the pattern is then repeatable.
Cheers, Renate
http://www.silvershop.net.au Our new website, check it out!
Look at the “Model Master” Gesswein, Rio or where ever one version is
castable the other is metal backed so that it will easily impress
wax. Mark Chapman
Hi, Will, Putting wax through a rolling mill is a very low-cost
proposition. Why not just try it? I’d love to hear how it goes. On
the other hand, I could just try it…
–No�l