I had a crack at something new today with amazing results.
Lost wood casting.
On a hunch I invested a magnolia seedpod in plaster/silica/glassfibre
investment, burnt the pod out in a kiln and poured metal in the
resulting cavity in the investment. For pictures of the result have a
look here
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I'm going to try this pod in copper and bronze next, and try casting
a machine part this way. The photo's don't really show it but the
detail is incredible.
Gregg