Row-boat sculpture. Lost wax

Lost wax casting is a process for making metal statues in which a wax sculpture of an image is covered in clay which is then baked. As the clay is heated the wax melts away leaving a negative image of the sculpture inside the hardened clay. Molten metal is then poured into the mould.

Lost-wax process, also called cire-perdue, method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a mold that has been created by means of a wax model. Once the mold is made, the wax model is melted and drained away.

The “lost wax” technique is so called because the wax model is destroyed in order to create the piece. The technique is sometimes called the “lost mold” technique because the mold, too, is destroyed in the process.