Delft Clay Casting

Inspired by my friend Shannon's (rubygirl) sand casting, and wanting to try something new, I bought myself a delft clay casting kit. While it has some different properties, the process is similar. I spent some time watching how-to videos on youtube - and was therefore an expert! The kit came with written instructions and possibly the worse instructional DVD I've ever seen. I was ready to go! Below are pictures of my first successful casting. This after a couple of "learning moment" attempts (fortunately you can just melt those down). The actual process goes very quickly so there's a large portion of instant gratification, a big positive for those of us lacking a large portion of patience. I can see why Shannon loves this technique and I can't wait to do more.

The clay, instructions and a small
crucible for melting metal.

The mold together. This is just
after I've poured the silver.

The mold pieces separated. You can barely
see any metal peeking through. A beginner's
mistake: I almost didn't use enough silver.

Here I've turned over the top of the mold
and you can see the casting and the burned
clay in the bottom.

The shell I used as a model with the casting.

Removed from the mold. This shell casting
is almost a full ounce of silver!