From wax to silver

I love working with wax. Seeing a form take shape as I carve from the wax block

It’s a slow and detailed process creating pieces from wax. I tend to work from a 2d drawing I have made and I have an idea what the depth of the piece is going to be. From here its pretty much freeform carving. With this fish pendant I wanted to create a feeling of movement thinking about how fish fins play against water. To achieve this I create angles at different levels to give depth to the piece.

I finish by sanding with very fine sandpaper to take out any imperfections in the surface. The a mould is made from the wax and cast in sterling silver.

As usual I had forgotten or not really thought about how I was going to attached the pendant to the necklace as I had been so into the carving stage. It took a few attempts soldering this one trying to find a comfortable balance for the fish to hang well. I prefer to do this at a later stage as silver is so much heavier then the wax. What you think looks good and sits well with wax doesn’t necessary will work in silver.