Ever wondered where the term "lost wax" actually came from and how it came about? According to the Artworks Foundry: "In the third millennium B.C., somewhere between the Black Sea and Persian Gulf, an artist crafted a vision in beeswax, covered it in liquid clay and cooked it in a fire. In the flames the wax was lost, replaced by empty space. Tin and copper - alloys of bronze - were gathered and heated. Once melted, the metal was poured into the cavity of the fire hardened clay. The metal cooled and the sculptor knocked the clay from the metal. The first bronze was cast.
Ancient "Lost Wax" bronze castings have withstood the centuries, visually telling the tale of past cultures, their religion and their social structures. For example, Chinese bronzes depicted ceremonial images; Indian and Egyptian castings symbolized deities; Africans cast images of nature; and the Greeks re-created the human Form. Many of the cultures have grown obsolete, religions have evolved and societies have changed. Elements of the "Lost Wax" process have been refined. Yet today, bronze casting is essentially the same as it was in 2,000 BC during the Akkadian period."
See more at the Artworks Foundry website:
www.artworksfoundry.com/process/casting.htm
