< WAX
ANIMAL & INSECT WAXES
Probably the best known of all waxes, BEES WAX is produced by the worker bee from gland secretions on it’s abdomen and used to form honeycomb. The wax is extracted for commercial use by immersing the honeycomb in a solvent or a hot water bath. In it’s natural state bees wax is yellow in colour, bleaching produces a white product.
The colour and consistency of bee’s wax is variable according to the species of flowering plant visited by the bee, though bees wax is typically hard and brittle, requiring some manipulation between the fingers, or soaking in a warm water bath to make the wax sufficiently pliable and plastic for modelling. Bees wax has an upper melting range of about 150°F (65°C), at this temperature all the wax’s constituents should be fluid.
Despite it’s historic association with sculpture and metal casting, bees wax is not commonly used in today’s art foundry, though some workshops still use a bee’s wax blend for brushing on an initial layer of wax before ‘slush casting’ (this harder wax helps prevent the ‘rounding off’ of detail when the wax cast is stripped from the surrounding rubber mould). One reason for the declining use of bee’s wax is cost (expensive, even allowing for foundry wax recycling), though bees wax can be blended with a less costley waxes (usually CERASIN wax by up to 20%), without too much loss of quality.
Pe-la wax is an insect wax, sometimes also known as CHINESE INSECT WAX. Rarely used in the foundry, PE-LA wax is sometimes used as a BULKING OUT wax in blends. Spermacetti (from Sperm and Cachelot whale species), and sheeps wool waxes are obtained from animal products, though for obvious reasons the whale based waxes are unavailable for use these days.
VEGETABLE WAXES >
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