Jewelry Designer of fine custom
art jewelry

Making a Wax Carved Hollow Pendant.

I was asked to make a pendant for a client that was in the shape of an onion and set with diamonds and emeralds. This was a commission work and all the stones and gold were supplied by the client in the form of old jewellery that was no longer suitable for use. I thought it would be nice to do a short Hidi (How I Do It) Again, as always, this is not the only way to do it.. There are many other methods of achieving the same result. Only, this is the way I do it.

I start with a piece of purple carving wax. I like Ferris or Matt, both available at www.riogrande.com  As this was not like the Egret Hidi also posted on the jewelry class list,   in as much that an onion does not have a precise defined shape, so there was no need to pre-draw it on a pieces of paper and stick it onto the wax. Rather, I just scribed the basic shape and cut it out with my wax saw.

On the left is a standard saw blade, on the right is a wax cutting saw blade. Commonly available at supply companies.

Cutting and filing the roots and top part

The onion had to have a wedge cut out of it. Carving an onion is not difficult- like say a face or something in motion. When the wax was at a stage where I could show my client for her approval to the next step, I spray painted the wax with some gold spray paint. This makes the piece immediately three dimensional and much easier to see detail. With out it , most waxes look flat.. I wash it off with lacquer thinners and an artists paint brush afterwards and it comes clean as a whistle for further carving. And anyway, when ever I carve anything, I pause and  give it a light spray to give the piece a metal look. It makes it easier (for me ) to see a mistake and to see where you are going. Test your wax first with any solvent before you put it on your masterpiece. Speaking of solvents, Eucalyptus oil or Wax Brite from Rio Grande work well to take out fine lines left from sanding paper. Fine lines, not gouges.

Hollow carving. A lot of times I am scared to go too thin, because having a thin area has to be repaired  before casting. If is it not, the metal might not flow easily and cause matata (trouble). On the other hand you can't make it too thick, especially if you work in gold. Emptying customers bank account with one piece of jewelry does not endear them to you. I have found that to keep it at about 1mm is good, although I have cast in a spin caster up to .5mm.  If I was making a master pattern (which this is not) I would hollow carve the model to about 1.2mm thick to allow for shrinkage further down the line.I hold the wax with the light in front of me and as it gets thinner it also gets paler( more light shines through). I use smaller and smaller ball frazers (pictured) as the corners inside get more narrow.

Since the wax is 1mm thick, so quite thin, I sprue it up heavily. Also because I am not interested in a partial cast and starting from scratch again..

The blue wax sprues can be seen here clearly. Also notice how 'flat' the wax look in relation to the picture of the gold painted one.( this one was taken last, so has had more detail than the gold one.)

And thusly she was cast. And verily, she was cleaned, and rubbed with the finest 200grit sandpaper, bathed in the best of ultrasonic baths not once, but thrice. She will be caressed with the finest of muslin clothe and anointed with the purest of Rougé in her future.

I decided to texture the back. I rolled out a piece of plate about .75mm thick well annealed. Then I took some ribbon which I had tested out on some scrap silver first.

And put it in my roller like this. I just get the front edge and the cloth and then I tighten the roller down nice and vas (tight) And then I roll in one motion through.

I have rolled mosquito gauze and bandages (those loose ones) flattened steel wool, shavings from a lathe or drill press and even dishcloths. All give interesting textures. The backing metal is the flattened and soldered to the bathed maiden part in the normal goldsmithing manner. The  textured piece is held level in a third arm and the cast onion is placed on top and soldered. The excess is cut off and filed down.

The awl is soldered on. I solder the back of the awl first, and then only put solder on the front. I never try solder both at once. To often, it ends up in tears.

I made a little leaf shaped 'spritz' that had paved emeralds to be set in later. I filed the little lug onto it and drilled a hole in the body of the piece at the right angle. This ensures a neat solder join.

Before that was soldered, I drilled  a few of the holes for the diamonds, to make rinsing easier after it was pickled in acid.. I then made the roots. I took four pieces of wire and fused them together. Fusing is discussed in  the Making a Fused Pendant Hidi. --The reason I fuse the roots is because that way, when I solder them on they can't move. A bit like a very hard solder. Once that is finished, I use needle files and a sanding disk (Moore's white plastic disks) to get them looking a bit like roots. Not very long or sharp. Jewelry that harms your client is not a very good business plan.

Partially polished and being set. Then everything is finished off, final polishing is done.

Done. I hope you enjoyed this How I do It. Any questions, suggestions or comments can be sent to me at hans@meevis.com