I'm Lisa. Growing up I've always loved rings. There's something so simple about a band on my finger that makes my heart smile. I have a collection of rings, some skinny, some giant cocktail rings, some are fancy, some are made of plastic, some are even broken, but as I look at each one I remember a moment in my life.
I was drawn to the history behind lost wax casting and rose cut stones, a time where things were simply made, when the world moved just a little slower.
When choosing gemstones, I think of my dachshund. He had one blue eye, one brown eye, was spotted all over and cooed like a bird, he was odd, I immediately fell in love. I feel the same about stones, each one has it's own special markings which tell their story, the journey they've been through. I love oddballs, that's how I see myself.
Once the stone is chosen, I begin by sculpting a home for it out of wax, make a plaster mold and allow it to set. After some time it goes into my kiln for many hours during which the wax is melted out. Next, I melt the gold with my torch and spin it into the mold using a centrifugal casting machine. It gets quenched in water, there's a mini explosion as the plaster mold is destroyed. My heart smiles as I dig to the bottom of the quench bucket and find your little gold sculpture.
Even the simple bands are individually made as I don't use rubber molds. At one time I decided it would be smarter to have these molds, bought a vulcanizer and a wax injector. I made many molds, seemed like it took forever to cut them all open, but now I have lots of rings all at once. They looked fine, but I didn't like them, they felt cold like they were from a factory. I threw out all of my rubber molds and decided that I would make each ring one at a time.
Artist. BFA in Fashion. Lived in that world for 17yrs. I now paint, cast gold jewelry and sometimes ceramics.