Wax & Modelling

Wax and modelling: from first sketch to bronze sculpture

Every sculpture, every figure and every jewellery shape starts with a model. In this category you will find the materials artists and hobbyists use to make and reproduce that model: modelling clays for sculpting, waxes for casting and ceramic shell materials for casting bronze or other metals yourself. Three steps that connect seamlessly, from the first shape in clay to the final casting in wax, resin or metal.

Modelling clay: making the model

A good modelling clay has to do exactly what your hands want. Soft, oil-based clays such as Chavant and Monster Clay do not dry out, can be reworked endlessly and can even be poured after heating. They are the standard in sculpture, special effects and the design studio. You will also find modelling wax and self-hardening compounds here for anyone who wants a model that is firm enough afterwards to be moulded straight away. Each product page states the hardness, whether the clay is sulphur-free (important if you want to make a platinum silicone mould from it) and at what temperature it becomes pliable.

Waxes: casting and reproducing

With casting wax you can make as many casts from a silicone mould as you like. Artist waxes (unfilled waxes) are supple and rich in detail; precision waxes and filled waxes shrink less and are more dimensionally stable, which matters for jewellery, dental technology and model making. Wax casts are an end product in their own right, but above all they are the link to metal: a wax model is the starting point of the lost wax process. Candle wax and dyes for wax can also be found in this group.

Ceramic shell: casting bronze yourself

If you want to see your wax model in bronze, aluminium or silver, take the next step with ceramic shell materials for the lost wax process (lost wax casting). The wax model is dipped layer by layer into a slurry of binder and ceramic powder and coated with stucco. After the wax has been melted out, a heat-resistant shell remains into which the metal is poured. Here you will find the binders, powders, stucco materials and additives to build up that shell, from a single sculpture in the studio to small series in the foundry.

Which combination suits you?

• Sculpting and modelling: oil-based modelling clay, optionally followed by a silicone mould from our silicone category.
• Reproducing in wax: a silicone mould plus artist or precision wax.
• Casting metal yourself: wax model, ceramic shell and a kiln to melt out the wax.

Not sure which clay or wax suits your project? Our team works with these materials themselves and will be happy to give you honest advice.