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West Mexican smiths worked primarily in copper during the initial period, with some low-arsenic alloys, as well as occasional employment of silver and gold. Lost-wax cast bells were introduced from lower Central America and Colombia during this phase, along with several classes of cold-worked ornaments and hand tools, such as needles and tweezers.
These are mostly gold or a gold alloy (with copper or silver) and have been found to be largely cold hammered and sand-polished alluvial nuggets, although a few items seem to have been produced by lost wax casting. It is presumed that at least some of these items were acquired by trade from Colombia. [39]
As the name suggests, the lost-wax method is to use wax as a mold, and heat it to melt the wax mold and lose it, thereby casting bronze ware, making the model (the outer layer of the wax model is coated with mud), lost-wax (heating to make the wax flow out), pouring copper liquid to fill the cavity left by the wax model, etc.
A very important advance in glass manufacture was the technique of adding lead oxide to the molten glass; this improved the appearance of the glass and made it easier to melt using sea-coal as a furnace fuel. This technique also increased the "working period" of the glass, making it easier to manipulate.
Tumbaga objects were often made using a combination of the lost wax technique and depletion gilding. An alloy of varying proportions of copper, silver, and gold (typically in a percentage ratio of 80:15:5) was cast. It was burned after removal, turning surface copper into copper oxide, which was mechanically removed.
Wax has been used since antiquity as a temporary, removable model in lost-wax casting of gold, silver and other materials. Wax with colorful pigments added has been used as a medium in encaustic painting , and is used today in the manufacture of crayons , china markers and colored pencils .
The team found Corinthian alabaster, Attic vases, and locally-made ritual jugs. They also uncovered treasure of a shinier kind: gold, silver, coral, and amber jewelry, amulets from the East, and ...
Candle moulding machine in Indonesia circa 1920. Candle making was developed independently in a number of countries around the world. [1]Candles were primarily made from tallow and beeswax in Europe from the Roman period until the modern era, when spermaceti (from sperm whales) was used in the 18th and 19th centuries, [2] and purified animal fats and paraffin wax since the 19th century. [1]