We adore Sea Stars in our workshop – who doesn’t ? There is something very joyful, even magical about them, even down to their name and they were some of our first ever pieces that we produced.
This is a Thorny Sea Star – we found washed up on a beach dried and bleached . We take a mould – very carefully, it is always a bit of a heart stopping moment in case any part snaps or breaks – we only have one of each shell. if that all works we can then pour the wax into the mould and out comes the 1st stage of the whole process. The next stage is refining the wax replica until it is as near as perfect as we can make it.
We attach many waxes to a wax tree with a little stem called a sprue. Once our “tree” is full off it goes for casting. The tree is covered in “investment” like plaster of paris and put into a furnace where the wax melts leaving a negative of the piece hence the name lost wax casting. Molten silver or gold is poured into the hard casing and plunged into cold water – this cracks the investment and left behind is the silver piece – and then the cleaning and finishing begins……
This little Sea Star was brought to us by a friend.
Did you know that when a Sea Star is attacked it can grow a new arm and that they have eyes at the end of their arms – this little fellow had been trying to grow a new arm when he was found – we loved his wonkiness so we made a mould and a wax replica and then reworked the shape to make our Curved Sea Star
So if you need some magical Stars in your life, remember our Sea Stars because not all Stars are found in the sky ……….