Creating an Iced Gem

More wax carving experiments!  I’ve been expanding my collection of shiny biscuits, this time with a little iced gem. Working in 3D still makes my head hurt.

I started off with a rough cylinder of hard green wax, then started shaping the base.

wax carving work in progress

wax carving work in progress

I originally carved a concentric ring design into the base, then changed my mind half way through and sanded it all off again!

How to do the icing bit on the top befuddled my little brain for a while.  I wandered off, hung out with the cats for a bit, then gave myself a good talking to (it’s probably good that I do my wax carving at home rather than in my shared studio, as I do tend to talk to myself a lot!) and got on with it.

I started with a ball, then slowly started carving lines into it and sculpting the hollows until then resembled icing.

iced gem wax carving

iced gem wax carving

This is as close as it got before casting into silver, as I was a bit worried about snapping the little pointy bit at the top.

iced gem wax carving

iced gem wax carving

Excited to see how it will turn out, although I always forget how heavy small wax things end up when cast in metal, so I suspect I’ve made it a bit too chunky...