Printing sterling silver

Shapeways is now offering sterling silver as a printing option until 7th of November! Since this is a time limited service, I took the opportunity to let them produce my 5 hearts pendant design in silver.

Lost wax casting

Although the title suggests that the design was printed in silver, the proces is a bit more complicated. It is in fact made by ‘lost wax casting’. The design is printed on a wax printer, sprues are added and the product is surrounded with gipsum. After this, the wax is removed in an oven, leaving an empty shell that is then filled with silver. After removing the gipsum shell the sprues are removed carefully and the product is hand polished.

This design and other designs can be purchased directly from shapeways and include free worldwide shipping.