Wax Carving 1.5 Advanced Course - Class outline for Instructor Mark Malenich

This 10-week course is intended for students who have attended a prior introductory wax carving course, or with experience through study of the jewelry arts. Students will be expected to be familiar with the tools and equipment involved in wax working for jewelry creation. This course considers stone setting, mold making and casting in precious metal.

Gemstones are not provided, but may be purchased through online or local vendors.

Metals and molding are provided by El Dorado Casting Lab at additional fees based upon market pricing of materials. Please contact El Dorado Casting Lab for questions regarding these added services.

Week 1 : Introductions, demonstration and hands-on practice of hand cutting and truing wax models. Skills will need to be mastered early in the course as a foundation for upcoming classes. Students will prepare several "blanks" for pendants and rings on the first day.

Week 2 : Design considerations: planning ahead for bails or stone setting. Demo: three types of settings (square, round and "card-cut") and strategies for successful settings.

Week 3 : Math for jewelry artists: Wax-metal conversions and cost calculations. "Hollowing out" models as a conservative solution for final target weight. Cost pitfalls: To embed gemstones or not to embed? Prefabricated settings and other elements with costs and weights in mind.

Week 4 : Refining wax models: Cleaning and polishing wax models to optimize clean casts. The time spent on refining a model is time saved in finishing the metal jewelry. Skills refresher: Mending wax models, filling scratches and fixing cracks.

Week 5 : Open studio. Students will work to catch up on and complete any models not yet submitted for casting. Skills refresher: Finishing metal jewelry: Buffing and polishing the cast jewelry.

Week 6 : Wax Building Techniques: Students will practice the use of wax building using the wax pens to build a model using wax deposits or "draw" designs on the surface of a model.

Week 7 : Fabricating and wax welding multi-part models. Students will be introduced to the skills needed to take their models to the next level: thinking in layers. Demo: How to make identical elements for precision models and matching elements to curved surfaces.

Week 8 : Adding embellishments: Making perfect Granules, embedding wires and jump rings, and adding custom textures.

Week 9 : Introduction to rubber molds, designing for production molding and the power of interchangeable parts.

Week 10 : Open Studio: Students will have the opportunity to complete cast pieces made throughout the course. The course will wrap up and wind down with a show and tell, and discuss critiques and lessons learned.