Wax has now superseded clay to create the Master, with latex, polyurethane rubber and silicone, replacing plaster for the mould. These materials have the ability to capture extremely fine details, with silicone being able to record a the whorls of a fingerprint
Historically an original sculpture was created in wet clay, which when dry became the Master. All subsequent moulds were taken from the Master, using gypsum plaster. From this, negative moulds were produced. In its day it was obviously State of the Art but it certainly had limitations in its ability to capture and record the fine detail we enjoy today
Thanks to advances in technology, the modern way to produce firing waxes from the original sculpture is to create a mould from the original wax sculpture by layering liquid latex onto the wax, coat by coat, until the desired thickness is achieved
Once the latex has cured on the original wax, it is then coated with fibreglass, again building it up, layer upon layer, until it is strong enough to support the latex mould within
During this process, flanges with register marks built-in are added around the mould to facilitate splitting it into two halves when cured. This ensures that when the two halves are re-assembled, they match up perfectly. The mould is then carefully cut into two halves across the flanges and removed from the artist’s wax
Overtime after repeated use, the definition will be reduced and a new mould will need to be fashioned. This is something we keep a close eye on to ensure that our current moulds produce a finely detailed firing wax to the quality of the original. If degradation occurs, the current wax is returned to the artist, the lost details reinstated, new moulds are created and the old moulds are scrapped
Thanks to advances in technology, the modern way to produce a firing wax from the original is to produce a latex mould from the original wax sculpture, which is used to create new firing waxes. Latex has the ability to copy details as fine as fingerprint and transfer that onto the firing wax