Can you cast a plastic piece in sterling silver?
This may be a crazy question, but I want to have a flower that is made out of plastic, casted in sterling silver. Is this possible?
I know the lost wax process, but was wondering if I could have plastic materials casted also?
do you have one plastic flower and it needs to come out perfect the first time or do you have several?
Depending on the type of plastic your plastic could be embedded into the appropriate material like for the lost-wax-casting and the plastic would burn out. The hollow space could be filled with molten sterling silver resulting in a replica of your plastic flower.
The problem is that there are many types of plastic. Some do burn out cleanly, others do not. Trial and error is the only practical way to find out. The only other option would be to make a mold of your flower and use this to make a replica in wax. Which also could be complicated.
You could either try to find a jewelry class which teaches you casting during which you could do it yourself or you need to find a jeweler who does custom fabrication as well and not just sell ready made jewelry. It’s not going to be cheap.
Depending on size and thickness of parts it would need to be cast with either vacuum casting or centrifugal casting, which is equipment a jeweler would have, but not a large scale art foundry.
do you have one plastic flower and it needs to come out perfect the first time or do you have several?
Depending on the type of plastic your plastic could be embedded into the appropriate material like for the lost-wax-casting and the plastic would burn out. The hollow space could be filled with molten sterling silver resulting in a replica of your plastic flower.
The problem is that there are many types of plastic. Some do burn out cleanly, others do not. Trial and error is the only practical way to find out. The only other option would be to make a mold of your flower and use this to make a replica in wax. Which also could be complicated.
You could either try to find a jewelry class which teaches you casting during which you could do it yourself or you need to find a jeweler who does custom fabrication as well and not just sell ready made jewelry. It’s not going to be cheap.
Depending on size and thickness of parts it would need to be cast with either vacuum casting or centrifugal casting, which is equipment a jeweler would have, but not a large scale art foundry.
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