The Process

There were four main parts to this project: hand sawing copper, moldmaking, lost wax casting and the assembly.

I started with a template of the outline of Africa and pasted it onto an 18 gauge sheet of copper. I then used a hand saw to cut out the outline. I then filed the edges, drilled the "diamond mine" holes, sanded and used heat patina to mimic the typographic map of Africa.

Then I started the figurines. My first attempt was hand carving the figurines, which failed due to the small sie and fine detail I wanted to achieve. So, I went on a hunt for small figurines mocking the RUF soildiers of the mines and skeletons to represent the lives lost in the conlict. I finally ordered charms off of e-bay with no luck finding anything of the small stature I wanted. I then tried making two-sided molds of the two figurines which proved to be a long, expensive and failing process. First I tried algenate, which was no reusable. Then I tried polytek 74-20 which did not set properly after trying several ratios of the formulas. I even tried hot glue which actually worked, until I poured in the hot wax which melted the details of the figurines. Finally, I tried "bondo" auto body filler, typically made for patching cars. The mold cured within five minutes, retained detail, withstood the heat of the wax and released tho wax easily with some cooking spray.

After my molds were made, I then injected wax into them using the wax injector in our studio. I made over 40 models for a safetly net, knowing the models are fragile and would likey break during the spruing and investing process. I then touched up the good models and removed limbs on some of the skeletons (to represent the amputations affiliated with conflict diamonds), sprued them and created several "trees" to be invested.

The casting proved to be sucessful, with the exception of two small figurines "lost" in the process.