How It's Made: Sand Cast Étoile du Nord Necklaces
When I was living in New Mexico, I made a collection of yucca pieces to celebrate the state emblem of the yucca flower. Now I am in Minnesota, where the state motto is “Étoile du Nord”, French for North Star. I began to play with the idea of making a mini north star collection.
In the studio, I have been experimenting with an ancient technique called sand casting, so I decided to fold that experimentation into dreaming up the étoile du nord pieces.
Here’s how the pieces are made (in two parts) ✨
Part I: Casting
little blue wax stars, loving carved by hand, to be cast in gold and silver.
I carved the original star in blue wax to use for the mold made out of sand. Watch as I create the mold by compressing the sand in a flask, make an impression with the tiny wax carving, and create air pockets for gases and excess metal to flow out of once the molten metal is poured into the flask.
Using only recycled gold scraps I have saved from projects over the years, I melt the metal in the crucible, heating it with my torch until it’s liquid enough to pour into the mold.
When I open the flask, you see the metal has filled the mold! I pull the metal out of the sand and scrape away burned sand bits. The rest of the sand can be reused for future casting.
I quench the freshly cast hot metal in water, then put it in an acid bath (called the pickle) to remove oxidation and gunk from the heating process.
The little golden étoile has a big “sprue” attached. The sprue is the extra metal from the casting process that will be cut off and reused for a future casting.
Part II: Finishing
fresh castings with sprue attached
When the casting comes out, it has a sprue, a big stem/knob of extra metal from the casting process, and lots of little craggy imperfections. You can see in the first clip how rough and raw the fresh casting looks.
I take it to my bench and first file it by hand with files, then sand off the surface using various heads on a flex shaft. I do this as long as I can with the sprue still attached because the piece is so small and really difficult to hold. Eventually I cut the sprue off with a jeweler’s saw, then file and sand the back.
When the tiny star is smooth and well-shaped to my eye, I solder on a tiny gold jump ring (also made from scratch but I didn’t document that bit!).
With jump ring attached, it’s time for polishing. I’ve already done a lot of smoothing with the flex shaft, so I pop in the the tumbler for a few hours before I polish it bright and shiny with polishing wheel attachment on the flex shaft again. Lots of toxic dust at this part because I use a polishing compound so I wear a mask and goggles 😎.
Then the piece is ready for the chain! In this case it’s a solid 14k gold beautiful Italian box chain. Tiny and delicate, to match the étoile aesthetic.
And finally: it’s ready to wear!
