June 2010: Sandcasting Workshop

June 06, 2012

On 19th June I ran a sandcasting workshop with 4 great students. Everyone had several attempts at casting and sweets seemed to be the order of the day! We had one stubborn key that we tried to cast several times, but it was a little on the thin side for the size of casting. Most students soldered jump-rings and fixings to their castings and applied polished or matt finishes. Some pieces were left unfinished for be worked on at a later date.

Everyone getting started by making the first sand mould.

Helen compressing the sand in the wooden mould with a hammer.

Melting scrap silver until it is molten and then we pour it into the mould on the right.

Gina making her second mould of the day.

Mark adding the sand to the mould.

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Opening the mould to remove the shapes and add air release holes.

Alex at the bench filing and sanding one of her castings.

Helen's castings. Some are finished and some still have the sprue left on, where she poured the silver into the mould.

Mark's castings. Unfinished as he is able to work on them at home and was just interested in learning the process.

Gina's pendants and charms made from the decorative end of a key.

Alex cast a large button and made a brooch fixing and a sweetie pendant!