Professional Practice 2 (2)

My second thursday morning at Glass Xpressions.

For the next few weeks it is my turn to teach a new skill - I am teaching Lisa, Mia and Sean how to do lost wax casting.

In preparation for today I found the Barnes showroom in Brisbane and went there on monday to stock up on wax and the other necessities needed to start making wax models. This morning I packed up my hot-plate, pans and tools and have set up an area in the studio to start melting wax.

Most of the morning was spent going through the basics. I showed everyone the best sort of pans for melting the wax in and how to pour it into different containers to make various sizes of wax blocks for moulding into shapes. 

Lisa had a roll of waxed paper - the backing paper from commercial signs produced in the factory unit next door, and this proved to be an excellent surface for pouring wax onto to create thin sheets for model making.

By the end of the morning we were able to start moulding the wax into shapes and start working the surface with tools, Lisa and Sean have promised to work on their models during the week so that we will soon each have something to make a mould of.

                                 Making a mess with wax already

Lisa and sean contemplating what vessels will make the best moulds for the wax