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Even though my bread was very dense, it did have sporadic large air bubbles.
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Name: Ingrid Romero
Date and Time:
Location: 7 East Ave, Apt 5R, Larchmont - NY 10538
Subject: Bread molding
Weather: 75º F (outside) - 70º F (indoors)
Materials:
Procedure:
Using my whole wheat manchet loaf, I proceeded to cut a triangle out with a regular chef’s knife which made it a bit more difficult to cut the crust but worked seamlessly afterwards due to the density of the bread. I also imagined there were no serrated knives in the 16th century.
Once I cut the triangle piece, I sliced it in half (horizontally) and proceeded to press small objects into each half (soft part of the bread) keeping the crust.
I made one and two sided molds which were relatively easy to imprint due to the density of the bread (similar to pudding) and using medium to light pressure with my hands.
For other objects, I decided to scoop out the inside of the bread with my hands and created soft pith molds. These molds were more difficult to shape and ended up easily cracking.
I found out that it was easier to cut and scoop the bread as well as imprint figures while it was still hot. I kept a piece of bread until the next day, stored in a bread bag and it was rock solid by the time we started the wax casting. It would've been extremely difficult and even dangerous trying to cut this piece of bread.
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Even though my bread was very dense, it did have sporadic large air bubbles. | |
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Bread pith mold | |
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Name: Ingrid Romero
Date and Time:
Location: 7 East Ave, Apt 5R, Larchmont - NY 10538
Subject: Bread molding - attempt 2
Weather: 80º F (outside) - 70º F (indoors)
Materials:
Procedure:
Using my all purpose flour manchet loaf, I proceeded to cut a triangle out with a regular chef’s knife. The density of this loaf was very similar to the whole-wheat in attempt one (almost pudding like).
Once I cut the triangle piece, I sliced it in half (horizontally) and proceeded to press objects into each half (soft part of the bread) keeping the crust.
I made one sided molds which were relatively easy to imprint due to the density of the bread and using medium to light pressure with my hands.
For my flat object, I decided to scoop out the inside of the bread with my hands and created soft pith molds.
Observation: Flat object (coin) did not work out, molds had no impressions at all - no detail.
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Name: Ingrid Romero
Date and Time:
Location: 7 East Ave, Apt 5R, Larchmont - NY 10538
Subject: wax casting
Weather: 75º F (outside) - 70º F (indoors)
Materials:
Procedure:
Put the beeswax beads in a heat resistant container and warm up at low temperature in order to avoid fire hazard incidents. Stir constantly and while the beeswax beads are melting, use the paint brush and apply a light coat of oil to the inside of your molds, making sure you cover all nooks and crannies. If your mold has cracks try using molding paste or another piece of bread to seal any gaps. Once all your molds are oil coated proceed to arrange them on your working surface, if using a two sided mold make sure there is a pouring spout and hold both pieces (aligned) with tape or twine to keep it from moving and leaking of wax.
Once all your molds are ready and the beeswax liquified, slowly start pouring wax into each mold with precision and making sure you have enough to cover each mold completely.
Let the wax cool and solidify (you will notice a change in color/viscosity of the wax), use your judgement and once the wax has settled, carefully start removing each mold. Unfortunately most of my bread molds had to be destroyed and I had a lot of bread residue stuck to my wax casting.
Once I removed all the bread molds, I placed my wax pieces in a mixing bowl with water and let it sit for a few minutes. After that, I used a disposable mascara wand to brush additional bread crumbs off.
While some of my casting pieces came off the molds easily and had retained a lot of detail, my two sided mold failed and I was unable to make it work (used tape and foil paper).
As with any other molds (silicone, rubber, etc.) air bubbles are an issue, since my loaf of bread was dense it minimized this setback.
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Two sided mold (triangle shape) did not hold wax and leaked all over. | |
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Notice wax leaking from a crack on the bottom right side of the bread mold. | |
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Aftermath of my wax casting recreation. | |
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Name: Ingrid Romero
Date and Time:
Location: 7 East Ave, Apt 5R, Larchmont - NY 10538
Subject: Wax casting - attempt 2
Weather: 80º F (outside) - 70º F (indoors)
Materials:
Procedure:
Put the beeswax beads in a heat resistant container and warm up at low temperature in order to avoid fire hazard incidents. Stir constantly and while the beeswax beads are melting, use the paint brush and apply a light coat of oil to the inside of your molds, making sure you cover all nooks and crannies. If your mold has cracks try using molding paste or another piece of bread to seal any gaps. Once all your molds are oil coated proceed to arrange them on your working surface, if using a two sided mold make sure there is a pouring spout and hold both pieces (aligned) with tape or twine to keep it from moving and leaking of wax.
Once all your molds are ready and the beeswax liquified, slowly start pouring wax into each mold with precision and making sure you have enough to cover each mold completely.
Let the wax cool and solidify (you will notice a change in color/viscosity of the wax), use your judgement and once the wax has settled, carefully start removing each mold. This time around, I was able to cast my pieces without destroying the bread molds.
Once I removed all the bread molds, I placed my wax pieces in a mixing bowl with cold soapy water and let it sit overnight.
Observations:
I was surprised to see the unevenness of my finished wax casting pieces. The density of the bread was similar to my first whole wheat loaf, but the difference was using larger objects that were solid brass. I believe that the shape and size of my molds was very irregular due to the uneven pressure I applied with my hands and the hardness of the material (brass). The coin had absolutely no trace of the original design, the mold barely retained the round shape but that was it. I wonder how they were able to maintain true shapes in the past, especially if the wax casting was composed of multiple copies instead of one casting per bread mold, as I did. Not sure if using linseed oil to coat the bread molds had any effect in the outcome, but I want to say probably not. I think the linseed oil instead of EVOO only helped maintain the mold intact, but had no effect in the final shape. I did feel like my wax casting pieces were a lot oiler than the previous batch.
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Name: Ingrid Romero
Date and Time:
Location: 7 East Ave, Apt 5R, Larchmont - NY 10538
Subject: wax casting
Weather: 84º F (outside) - 70º F (indoors)
Materials:
Procedure:
I left the wax casting pieces soaking in water overnight. Remove pieces and use a paper towel to dry them up individually. Carefully start by using different shape files and remove large amounts of residual wax around each piece. Keep in mind the heat of your body (hands) does impact the shape of the wax, specially if they are small pieces. I had to continuously stop and place wax pieces back in cold water to harden wax. By filing away excess wax I was able to identify areas where air bubbles were present and once finished I arranged the wax pieces side by side with the original objects, noticing the wax pieces were considerably smaller. I believe the wax pieces were smaller because I removed the objects from the bread molds to let them dry overnight and the bread possibly sprung back a little bit, shrinking the size of the molds.
Another observation was that I over poured wax on the molds, making it extra difficult to clean and wasting materials.
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Name: Ingrid Romero
Date and Time:
Location: 7 East Ave, Apt 5R, Larchmont - NY 10538
Subject: wax casting
Weather: 67º F (outside) - 70º F (indoors)
Materials:
Procedure:
I left the wax casting pieces soaking in water for a few nights. Remove pieces and use a paper towel to dry them up individually. There were tiny amounts of bread attached to some pieces and were completely gone by the time I removed them from the soapy water solution. Since my finished wax pieces were large and uneven I did not use any files, I only dried them up and tried to take pictures in order to capture all the details of my casting.
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