Adventures in handmade jewellery with sand casting

Some of my handmade jewellery is created using an age-old technique called sand casting. I usually start by either carving a wax model by hand or designing something in CAD, and then I do the casting myself, right here in my Leicestershire workshop.

It’s a pretty hands-on process — and not the tidiest job! It involves pouring molten metal into a mould made of packed sand, which is just as nerve-wracking (and exciting) as it sounds. Compared to lost wax casting, which is more common, sand casting feels more immediate and involved. I love being able to do the whole thing myself, without having to send it off to someone else. It means every piece really does feel like my own from start to finish.

It does need a bit of a tidy-up once the casting’s done, but that’s part of the charm. The end result isn’t perfectly smooth or factory-finished – it’s got a much more natural, handmade feel that gives each piece its own character. And that's what I really love about it.

Sand casting has been around for nearly 5,000 years, which blows my mind. There’s something really special about using a technique with that much history and knowing it still has a place in modern jewellery making. It’s one of many traditional skills that make handcrafted jewellery here in the UK so unique.