Various jewelry projects using investment casting with silver to create compelling and creative pieces.
Class/Organization: ME 298 Silversmithing and Design — Stanford University
Role: Product Designer
Duration: Jan 2021 — Mar 2021 (Projects varied from 3-4 weeks over 10-week quarter)
PROCESS.
The process of using investment casting began with a block of wax from which I carved the piece that I wanted to be cast in metal. This was an extremely new process to me as I had never worked with wax before or tools specifically to be used with wax such as a rotary tool, jewelry saw, and various files.
In addition to the various wax projects, we were given a sheet of silver to do a cutting and piercing project to create a 2D piece that still carries the same depth and interest as the 3D investment cast pieces.
In this course, we were given five design prompts from which we could choose to fulfill the various projects that were intended to push us as engineers to think more like a designer and artist. Below are the various assignments we were given, along with my chosen prompt, and a photo of the wax carvings.
Working at my dorm desk on the ring wax using a file while wearing protective equipment.
The first project was to design a ring. No prompt was required, but I wanted to create a minimal and unique ring. This ring was designed to look like a band wrapping around a ring, although it also turned out looking like a cat from the front profile.
The second project was a volume challenge— we were instructed to create a lightweight piece that spanned a large volume. I was inspired by the “nature” prompt for this piece and carved a propagating succulent to also represent growth in fragility.
The final project was required to be a carving project that fulfilled one of the prompts. I chose to fulfill the prompt “tangible abstraction” with a play on words to carve a piece inspired by lightning in a bottle. The piece was intentionally jagged and rough to represent the unpredictable, jagged nature of lightning.
PRODUCT.
Due to COVID-19, Stanford’s Product Realization Lab was closed for the 2020-2021 school year when this project occurred. As a result, I was unable to physically be in the lab to cast these projects. Instead, these projects were cast by our instructors while we watched on Zoom to still understand the process, followed by a quiz. Through this, I still developed a deep understanding of the considerations that go into the process of investment casting from the wax phase to the investment phase to the casting phase.
Although we did not physically cast the pieces ourselves, the cast pieces were mailed to us for polishing and finishing. Below are photos of the final finished pieces.
My ring was polished to have a shiny finish to highlight the geometry of the ring through the reflection of the silver under light. Rather than using polishing compound on the ring to get a polished finished, I used gradually higher grit sandpaper.
In the small carved details of the propagating succulent, patina was applied to highlight and bring depth to the smaller growing pieces. Then, the ring was polished to a shiny finish. After having a shiny finish, a high grit sandpaper was applied in one direction to get matte finish.
To highlight the jagged edges of this piece, the inside of the bottle charm had patina applied. Then, on the outside, it was polished to a shiny finish before being softly sanded to create a matte finish to soften the contrast between the inside of the charm and the outside.