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Fred Sias is a retired
university professor. He has worked with most lapidary techniques
including faceting, gold and silversmithing, channel work,
opal cutting, and lost-wax casting. He has taught lost-wax
casting at Wildacres for both the Eastern Federation and Southeast
Federations, and at the William Holland School in Georgia.
The course is designed
to teach the basic techniques for lost-wax casting. It is
not a wax design course. Starting with a commercial wax model,
the student will learn the proper methods for repairing wax
models, attaching sprues, investing, burnout, casting, and
final finishing of a piece of jewelry. Emphasis will be on
learning why certain steps are preformed as well as the alternative
methods that may be employed to produce quality castings.
This course is intended
to enable a student to make intelligent decisions if he/she
should desire to set up casting facilities after returning
home. Approaches from simple methods with homemade equipment
to the more expensive professional equipment will be discussed.
Steam casting, vacuum casting and centrifugal casting will
all be demonstrated and the student will have the opportunity
to experiment with some or all the techniques.
A copy of his book Lost-Wax
Casting: Old, New, and Inexpensive Methods will be available
at a special student price, but it is not required.
LAB FEE: $30.00 (or less
depending on the silver market price) will be charged to cover
consumables and some waxes. Some additonal gold and silver
casting grain will be available at market price.
Maximum No. of Students:
8 (number of student kits available).
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