Wax Carving

by Nancy Plante June 01, 2023

Step inside Pierre's studio to learn about creating a piece of jewelry.

A jeweler wearing a magnifying visor is carving wax to make jewelry.

One of the ways to create a piece of jewelry, is to make a wax model. The model is used to make a mold, which is then used to cast the precious metal piece.

Pierre is carving a wax model for a pendant.

A jeweler's bench with a saw, a file, and wax carving tools.

Pierre is using wax that is especially made for carving. He made a tracing of the shape he needed to cut out, and laid the tracing paper on top of the block of wax.

Making pinpricks through the paper, Pierre transferred his design onto the wax.

He used a jeweler's saw to cut out the basic shape.

Small files were used to define the outer edge of the pendant piece.

Now Pierre is using a bigger file to start shaping the top of the piece by removing larger quantities of wax.

A jeweler's bench with wax and wax carving tools.

Later in the process, Pierre will use wooden-handled wax carving tools to carve details.

For surface finishing, he will use the small wax-working burrs in the white case.

A sketchbook with a drawing of a pendant, and the partially carved wax model for the pendant.