Sand Casting: including adding stones, textures and more
Learn how to create beautiful jewellery using sand casting
About the Tutorial
Sand casting is one of the oldest metal working techniques in the world. It has been used to create pieces of art and jewellery for thousands of years, and although the tools used in the process have been refined the basic principles remain the same - press the item you want to recreate in metal into fine sticky sand, pour molten metal into the impression left in the sand, wait for it to cool, and you’ll have created something beautiful and unique!
The list of items you can use to create moulds in the sand is almost endless - my students and I have had great success with twigs, acorns, shells, buttons, Lego pieces, small toys, beads, ammonites, wax carvings and more. You can create a faithful reproduction of the item used to create the mould, or adapt it by reshaping, adding textures or adding stones. I’ll teach you how to do all that and more in this book - but I have to warn you, it is rather addictive! You'll soon be wandering round charity shops and looking round your home for new items to cast.
Previous experience of using a blowtorch is assumed. Please do make sure that you read the health and safety section on page 4 and make sure that you are protecting both yourself and your work area before starting casting - safety first!
This tutorial ebook is just one in a growing collection. You can buy each one individually or buy on the whole bundle and save money at the same time.
Tools and Materials
"Sand Casting" will take you through everything you need, with information given on tools, equipment and materials as well as clear, step-by-step photos and written instructions for each technique. The most important pieces of equipment that you may not already have are:
* sand casting rings and sand - I prefer aluminium side-pour rings as I can use them for top-pour and side-pour set ups. To find out what those terms mean, what the rings look like and where I get them (and the sand) from visit this blog post.
* blowtorch suitable for the high temperatures required
* a safe working area, preferably with a surround that protects behind and to the sides as well as underneath your casting area.
The Sand Casting ebook covers my favourite methods and tools for cleaning up your casts, as well as two ways to add bails to turn your casts into beautiful pendants.
The ebook has 30 pages, 102 step-by-step photos plus 26 additional gallery and equipment photos. Topics covered include added rough and faceted stones, adding textures, casting two items at once, making a mould thicker or thinner than the original item, and casting with two different metals.
Course Curriculum
Joanne Tinley
Tutor and Founder of The Jeweller's Bench
The Jeweller's Bench is run by Joanne Tinley. She has been making her own jewellery for as long as she can remember and left her first career as a school teacher to set up business as a jewellery designer and tutor nearly 20 years ago. She is
self-taught and like many people started with wire and beads. Learning how to solder, however, opened up a whole new world of jewellery making, one that she is keen to share!
