The finished waxes with sprues, pour cups, and a few extra vents.

Moving to Howard’s studio, I’m beginning the process of dipping the wax in a ceramic slurry mix (colloidial silica) and refractory silica sand. This is ceramic shell moldmaking. The systems in his studio are really well-designed and working there is easy and efficient. See the beautiful chartreus color of the slurry:

The first coat is “clear”, without sand. This preserves the surface detail.

After drying, the wet second coat is bonded with fine sand.

The next 8 coats use a coarser sand. The shell for a piece this size should be about 3/8th inch thick. Each coat should dry overnight – it will take some time to finish this mold. Maybe I can get by there on my lunch hour?