Ramblin' Dan's Workshop

The outdoor weather here in Dallas, Texas as been in the 100's. (105° the high so far.) The shop has been in the mid 90's and killer humidity. This time of year it is not a nice place to work.

I have installed a wax carving area in my home office where it is air conditioned. I have to wonder why I waited so long. It is a wonderful place to work! I have carved the two examples shown here and mounted my next master on a spue to be cast when this high temp goes away.

I have discovered Texas summer is not a good time to run a kiln in an unconditioned garage for 12 hours. But it was still a ton of fun.

The left is the Lone Star of Texas and to the right is a remake of the Celtic Triad. The first one was lost (wax) when I tried my first casting. This one I did in the gold Wolf's hard wax.	This is the back side of the Lone Star. I am removing wax to make it lighter and so it will use less wax. Right now it is 3.4 grams. That is a little more than an ounce of silver.
I made this in August. It's Celtic and called a Triskele. It represents family.

Silver is about $20.00 Oz on the market but processed into Sterling adds to the cost. The Lone Star will have about $30 of silver in it not including the casting tree. The lighter I make it the cheaper it will be in silver cost. I have to find the correct balance of wax thickness to strength. Also I am not yet the world's greatest wax carver but I am working on it! Ha!