Plant casting

Using my inspiration from Burnout casting and my very badly made Silicone molds. The vertebra I found on the beach and made a silicone mould of it which I then injected wax into the mould. The wax roses I cast in the same flask as the vertebra were from a mold I made last year (Fig. 2). Wax is what is what is normally used for casting as wax burns out easily in the kiln but I wanted to try cast plants.  I grew succulents (Haworthia and Sedum Adolphii) and picked the newly budding ones so that when it is cast it will not weight too much in metal(Fig. 1). Plants will burn to ash in the kiln unlike the wax that will vaporize in the kiln but succulents are water based. The flask would need to be raised so that the water which will turn to steam has somewhere to evaporate rather than being trapped in the flask.

Figure 1 -Bowes, K., (2020). Succulents for casting.

Figure 2- Bowes, K., (2020). wax vertebra and roses.

I cast the succulents and vertebra in gilding metal (Fig. 3 and 4) as I was not sure if the burn out method for the succulents would work. This was an experiment as I did not have a final goal or use for these items once they were cast.

Figure 3 - Bowes, K., (2020). Haworthia and Sedum Adolphii. 

Figure 4 - Bowes, K., (2020). cast vertebra.