Making the Larkin Poe Pendant

This is a story of inspiration. I was stuck musically in listening to mostly 60’s and 70’s artists. Then, I stumbled on Megan and Rebecca playing – In the Air Tonight. I’m not a huge fan of Phil Collins. I like his work and I really like this song. These ladies nailed it. Haunting, beautiful and driving. First I was caught by the slide then the voice. Who are they? That rabbit hole opened up in many directions that fit my favorite genres, but also opened me to their new stuff. New music form new (to me) artists. Here is a link for you to jump down the rabbit hole too. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching them on this journey. To see their Jimmy Kimmel appearance on March 20, 2023 go here.

Along the way, I encountered tons of photos of them performing and posing, and felt inspired to make a pendant as I thought them very “sculpture-genic”. Lately, as can be seen on this site, I have been sculpting wood and glass. Glass is new (since 2006), but in the 70’s it was also about silver, gold, and bronze in addition to wood carving and furniture. I haven’t sculpted a wax for casting in metal since the 80’s and this chain of events lead me to considering this pendant concept for well over a year. I knew it would be a challenge.

The copyrights of the Larkin Poe photos below are the sole property of the copyright holders.

I purchased a VIP ticket to see Larkin Poe on April 1, 2023 and now had a deadline to surprise them.

The creative experience has surprised me as well.

After about 30 hours carving a small piece of wax about the size of a quarter. I was about 80% done. Often carving too much and adding more wax only to carve that section again and again and again. The details were difficult and the idea of maybe having it cast and losing the wax original (that’s how the lost wax process works) was an unsettling prospect. With this method it is entirely possible to melt the wax out of the “investment flask” and if the casting fails, there’s nothing left but pictures.

Then I remembered, my Dentist once offered to scan items into his 3D system. I thought well, maybe that’s a way to save my work. We scanned it and then I realized that the 3D sculpting tool in the computer was just another VERY powerful tool. A new tool, like a knife or chisel, or a table saw or grinder or chainsaw for my wood carvings. Or like a torch, annealing oven, graphite shaper or tweezers for my glass sculptures or pendants. I love working with tools and materials while learning about new ones.

The first picture below is exactly what the wax carving looked like in the 3D shaping software called Meshmixer after it was scanned at Dr. Paul Hague’s office. The second image is how it appeared after much computer shaping effort and cutting away pieces I decided to discard.

Below is a video of how it appeared before the final 3D printing at Dr. Hague’s office. This would create the plastic model that would be molded in rubber as explained in the caption below. Thank you Paul.

Here it is as a final digital sculpting. Next it was printed in plastic resin. Then I carved and refined the plastic model to make a rubber mold to cast wax duplicates. These cast wax models gets contained in a flask of a special type of plaster of Paris. The next step is to melt out the wax, bring the now empty plaster mold up to the temperature of the melted sterling silver and pour it in with the help of a vacuum system. Once the pendant is in sterling silver, I then had to file, grind and polish the silver pendants. Finally, I gave them a patina.

I’ll admit that I was a bit of a snob because I thought using a 3D sculpting software program was cheating. After another 30 to 40 hours of learning how to use some of the tools in refining this mini sculpture, I am astounded at the power at my finger tips. It’s like sculpting with digital clay. Instead of adding or carving, I’m inflating, deflating, pinching, removing and smoothing the ones and zeroes. I realize now that I’m just starting this journey.

Here is a video of the raw casting.

Here is a picture after initial grinding and polishing and one of a raw pendant next to a polished one and the opened rubber mold that the waxes were cast in. And then a finished pendant with patina.

April 1 I had the pleasure of going to the concert. The high energy, musical talent and obvious love for their art and each other is infectious and will take them far. At the meet and greet before the show they were genuinely happy to meet their fans and were sincerely appreciative of these pendants. Megan immediately put hers on.