09/04/2018 -The Castings Are Back
So the bracelet link castings came back today. Mine cost £41.71 in total. This included the mold, cutting, producing 10 waxes, silver and casting. Pretty good but these were done at student rates.
To my surprise, as soon as I saw my design reproduced in silver, I knew I had to change the stone to emerald green instead.
Maybe because the sapphire was too dark, and maybe because the ziggurat feel reminds me of Aztec temples surrounded by lush green jungle.
So it was back to Wards for some synthetic emeralds. These proved really quite expensive considering they're synthetic. However the colour is amazing and they are incredibly tiny, so hard to cut I suppose. No regrets though, they'll look lovely.
Maybe because the sapphire was too dark, and maybe because the ziggurat feel reminds me of Aztec temples surrounded by lush green jungle.
So it was back to Wards for some synthetic emeralds. These proved really quite expensive considering they're synthetic. However the colour is amazing and they are incredibly tiny, so hard to cut I suppose. No regrets though, they'll look lovely.
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Now I look closely at the castings, I notice they are not as good as I was hoping for.
The first photo below shows that half of them (bottom row) have very rounded edges to the layers.
And the second photo shows that the stone setting tabs have not come out well at all, and some of them are non-existent.
The first photo below shows that half of them (bottom row) have very rounded edges to the layers.
And the second photo shows that the stone setting tabs have not come out well at all, and some of them are non-existent.
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There's nothing I can do about the rounded contours, but I will have to file down all of the tabs and solder new ones on, just like when I was building the master pattern. This, although a pain in the backside, is probably for the best, as I don't know if the cast tabs would have been flexible enough to be pushed over the stones.
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