What to Get:
Cuttlebone (feel free to go through them to find the biggest one)
Sandpaper
Casting Grain
Oxy-Acetylene torch
Flux
Pins
Dental tools (or anything small good for scraping)
Tape
Crucible (something to heat the metal in)
Sand
How-To:
1. Take the biggest cuttlebone you can find and sand the inner soft part until it's nice and flat
**the bigger the bone, the more of a canvas you'll have**
2. Cut it in half so you have 2 identical sized pieces
3. Figure out what you want to draw on a little piece of paper for your cast. Try something simple like a star or heart.
4. Trace the shape or design into one side first. Keeping the piece of paper in place, take the second piece and lay it over top.
5. Using the pins, gently poke through both pieces so that the paper sticks to the pins on the blank piece. Repeat the tracing process.
6. Using the dental tools, carve out what you want to have cast.
**make sure to carve a funnel at the flat end of the cuttlebones for when you go to cast**
7. Tape it together when you are all finished and stick it in the sand
8. Heat up the casting grain in the crucible with the torch and sprinkle with a little flux
9. Gently pour the molten metal into the funnel
**any left over metal that doesn't go into the mold will cool down in the sand**
10. Last step! After you allow the cast to cool off, cut the take off and quench the metal cast in water. Once you get a chance to cut the extra pieces off, file the edges, and polish to get rid of the grain from the bone, you will have yourself a little charm-sized mold!
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| Cuttlebone mold before |
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| Cast after http://ganoksin.com/blog/primitive/2010/02/22/cuttlefish-casting/ |
