Casting a CND pendant in silver

Here is my entry for the #build-contest and this was a bit of a task as i thought it would be simple but that was just not the case.

I was tasked with casting a base metal pendant into a silver pendant, to start this off i covered the pendant in talc and packed one half of the casting flask with delft clay.

I now added the other half of the casting flask and added more delft clay making sure it was packed down so the clay really captures the details.

A pouring channel is cut to allow the molten silver to reach the void created by the impression of the pendant.

The flask is locked shut and clamped with some heavy duty clips, once the silver reaches 1100°c it is poured into the top.

This is the moment of truth, when opening the casting flask you wonder did the pour go correctly and at first glance it looked good.

Next step is to cut off the sprew and i used a jewellers saw but i do wish i had used a hacksaw, i always do this in a vice with a sheet of paper underneath so i can recover any silver that is dropped.

Next thing to do is take a small file and remove any flashing where the silver has crept into unwanted areas, this was a real pain as the gaps where awkward.

With a the filing done it is time to move onto smoothing everything and i start off with a rough polishing wheel that removes any high points.

The last polishing step is to use a rotary tool with some jewellers polish, there is two steps with this. First i used a white compound which gives a medium polish and then red compound which gives a shine.

The last step for this is to stamp my work, i used a mermaid stamp and MJG. To make this easier when stamping i suggest heating the silver until it glows a dull red and then quench in water and stamping really becomes impressive.

thankyou for reading