resins?

[opakitas]

I was told by someone that a pin I got from someone isn't actually wood that they did originals in wood and then copied them in resins? Is this possible and if so how do they do it.

thanks
Tammy

[Ashbys]

Yes , many many carvings have been converted to resins. Many times to give the impression of wood carvings , today David Shore is one that is very noticable , yet his resins were never made out of wood. He uses modeling wax to make the orginial . This pattern is then turned into a plaster dublicating mold. The orginial wax pattern is melted inside the duplicate mold and poured out leaving a two piece mold of the orginial wax form. Using this mold , wax patterns are duplicated , which are then encased with a ceramic coating and fired to melt the wax. The result is a glass like single mold of very high detail .It can be duplicated millions of times. Most times today it is a form of the lost wax process, lost wax process is not some lost art special process it is called lost wax , because the wax used for the pattern, is melted in the mold and thrown away , becomming lost in the process. The process it'self in 1000's of years old.

Once the molds are made they are filled with a plastic bonding agent and a filler. The fillers can be a lot of different materials. Cairn figures are resins, David Winter cottages , and many others. It is a mass manufactoring process, to make cheap reproductions. Most are now done in China as the labor is cheaper. The reason resin is used as the term, is because you can sell resin for more than plastic but it is basically the same .