CASTING COURTESY OF THE BEACH / by Amelia Gilmore

Experiments with sand and cuttlefish casting

Shells collected from the beach to be used for sand casting. 

This process involves pressing an object into a container of firmly packed sand to create a good likeness. Silver is heated in a crucible and the molten metal is poured into the space left by the object, acquiring it's shape and detail.

Can you Hear the Sea necklace

In this case a shell and tiny silver flower were cast in sand.

A funny little plastic crab I found in my old jewellery box. Cast in sand to create shiny silver cufflinks.

Crabby cufflinks

Conifer cufflinks

For these cufflinks I used a different method of casting- cuttlefish. Sounds odd but after collecting a few cuttlefish washed up on the beach I cut them in half and pressed an interesting button into the chalky surface. After fixing the two sides together and creating a channel for the liquid metal to enter, I cast the button in silver. The difference however with cuttlefish is that you can get a fascinating texture on the metal from the bones of the fish. The above surface of the cufflinks is actually the back of the cast buttons. I preferred the wonderful tree-like pattern left from the cuttlefish after the casting process. 

The back of the cufflinks which are the front of the original button I cast.