Quick answer: Lost-wax casting is a way of making metal objects by modeling the piece in wax, encasing it in a heat-resistant mold, melting the wax out and pouring molten metal into the space it leaves. The technique is about 6,000 years old, and it is still how much of today's fine jewelry is made, including every Memori piece, which we cast in our own U.S. studio.
Many of the most remarkable metal objects ever made, from ancient ritual bronzes to Renaissance sculpture, share one method: lost-wax casting. The idea is simple. Make the object in wax, surround the wax with a mold, melt the wax away, and pour metal into the space it leaves behind. The wax is "lost," and the metal keeps every detail it held.
How lost-wax casting works
- The wax model. The piece is first made in wax by carving, sculpting, pressing, or, today, 3D printing. Every texture in the wax will appear in the final metal.
- The casting tree. Multiple wax models are attached by small sprues to a central wax trunk, forming a jewelry casting tree. These connected channels provide a path for molten metal to reach each piece.
- The investment. The wax tree is set in a flask and covered in investment, a fine plaster-like material that captures the smallest surface detail.
- Burnout. The flask is heated in a kiln. The wax melts and burns away, leaving a hollow, perfect negative of the piece.
- Casting. Molten metal is poured or forced into the cavity, usually with vacuum or centrifugal force so it reaches every corner.
- Breaking out and finishing. Once cool, the investment is broken away. The rough casting is cut from its sprue, then filed, sanded and polished by hand.
Because each mold is destroyed to release the metal, every casting is, in a sense, a one-time event.
A very long history
The ancient Near East. Some of the earliest known lost-wax castings come from the Nahal Mishmar hoard, a group of copper ritual objects found in a cave near the Dead Sea and dated to around 3700 BCE.
The Indus Valley. The small bronze figure known as the "Dancing Girl," found at Mohenjo-daro in present-day Pakistan and made more than 4,000 years ago, was cast by the lost-wax method. It is still admired for its natural, relaxed pose.
South India. Under the Chola dynasty (9th to 13th centuries), sculptors in Tamil Nadu cast temple images of Hindu deities by the lost-wax method, including the celebrated dancing Shiva, Nataraja. Each image needed its own wax model, so no two are exactly alike. Artisans in the town of Swamimalai still cast bronzes this way today.
China. Most early Chinese bronzes were made with piece molds, but by the 5th century BCE, extraordinarily intricate works appear. The openwork bronze zun and pan from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (buried around 433 BCE) are often cited as masterpieces of early lost-wax casting in China.
West Africa. In the Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, guilds of casters used lost wax for centuries to create brass plaques and heads of astonishing detail. Plaques like the one below once covered the pillars of the royal palace.
Renaissance Europe. The goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini cast his bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, completed in 1554 and still standing in Florence. In his autobiography, he describes the metal running short mid-pour and throwing his household pewter into the furnace to save the casting.
From dentistry to jewelry
Modern jewelry casting has a surprising link to dentistry. In 1907, the American dentist William Taggart introduced a precise lost-wax method for casting gold dental inlays. Jewelers soon adopted the same tools: centrifugal casting machines, fine investments, and controlled burnout kilns. That precision is what lets a casting today reproduce the ridges of a single fingerprint.
Why jewelers still use it
- Detail. Investment captures textures as fine as a fingerprint's ridges or the grain of a nose print.
- Freedom of form. Curves, twists, and hollows that would be very hard to build from sheet or wire can be shaped in wax first.
- Solid metal. The result is a single, solid piece, not plated or assembled from thin parts.
Lost wax at Memori
Every Memori piece is cast in our own studio in the U.S. Our continuous Infinity forms begin in wax, and the impressions you send, whether fingerprints, a palm print or your pet's nose print, are carried into that wax model, so the lines become part of the form itself rather than a surface engraving.
We then invest, burn out and cast each piece in solid 925 sterling silver ourselves, and finish it by hand. From the wax model to the final polish, every step happens in the studio, which lets us watch over the detail of each print at every stage.
It is the same principle used for bronzes thousands of years ago, applied to something very personal. Because the prints are cast into the ring, it cannot easily be resized afterward, which is why we ask you to confirm your size first. Read our guide to choosing a finger and size, or explore The Infinity Collection.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it called lost-wax casting?
Because the wax model is melted and burned out of the mold before the metal is poured. The wax is "lost," and the metal takes its exact shape.
How old is lost-wax casting?
Some of the earliest known lost-wax castings, copper objects from the Nahal Mishmar hoard near the Dead Sea, date to around 3700 BCE.
Is lost-wax casting still used today?
Yes. Beyond jewelry and sculpture, the same principle, often called investment casting, is used in dentistry and to make precision engineering parts.
Can a lost-wax cast ring be resized?
A plain band sometimes can. A ring with fingerprints or other texture around the band is very hard to resize without damaging the detail, so we confirm your size before casting. See our ring sizing guide.
Sources
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Nahal Mishmar Treasure (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)
- National Museum, New Delhi, via Google Arts & Culture: Dancing Girl
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja), 1987.80.1
- University of Washington, A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization: Bronzes from Marquis Yi's Tomb
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Plaque with Warrior and Attendants, 1990.332
- Visit Tuscany: Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa
- National Library of Medicine (PMC): The Cast Inlay, on William Taggart's 1907 casting method