Feverish Thumbs: Ceroplastic Tools

The class looks on curiously as our teacher, Suzanne Pugh, a renowned metalsmith and jeweler, spits out the small piece of brown wax that she had been warming in her mouth. Is this the only way to warm up the wax to a workable consistency? I try breathing on the wax—too cool. I try heating it with a small candle’s flame—too hot. I put the wax under my arms— just right. I can tuck a piece in my sleeve and then go work on other projects while waiting for it to adjust to the heat of my body. Though, sometimes I forget I’ve stored it there, and, later in the day, when I’m no longer in the metal studio, I’ll remember and pull some wax from my sleeve, like a magician who makes a coin appear from behind someone’s ear. The wax leaves a momentary impression upon my skin, like a clothing seam, and I return that press when I shape it with my hands. Here, at Penland School of Craft, we are learning the process of lostwax casting small objects (the maximum size being about 1 pound of bronze and measuring 4 x 4 x 9 inches). After days of modeling wax and preparing investment molds, the days when we cast the works buzz with an excitement reflected in the extreme heat of that moment. Forging, ceramics, glass blowing— art mediums that emerge directly from