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Playable heritage game

Lost-Wax Bronze Casting

Also known as Igun · lost-wax casting

Metalworkers in Benin City, in Nigeria's Ife and Igbo-Ukwu traditions, and in Japan shape a figure in beeswax, coat it in clay, heat the mould until the wax runs away, and pour in molten bronze or brass. This game is the first step: trimming the wax model.

Play the previewAbout this tradition
Lost-Wax Bronze Casting: photograph by cliff1066
Photo: cliff1066, CC BY 2.0, source on Wikimedia Commons
Lost-Wax Bronze Casting: the game in attract modeLive previewPlay

Runs in your browser, works offline once loaded.

How to play

  1. The framed bird, a cockerel of the kind cast in Benin, is the wax model the founder wants.
  2. Drag over the wax block to trim away everything that is not the bird.
  3. Wax is cut with a fine heated blade, so work in small, careful strokes; Undo brings back the last stroke.
  4. Press Check to see how true the model is.
Rules at a glance
  • Only the wax stage is played: the clay coat, burn-out and pour are told in the note below.
  • Cutting into the bird costs as much as leaving wax around it.
  • Three stars need a nearly exact model, because every flaw in the wax is copied in the metal.

About the tradition

The wax model is coated in layers of clay, baked until the wax melts out, and the empty mould is filled with molten metal that is then freed by breaking the clay. Casting guilds in Benin City, workshops in Ife and Igbo-Ukwu, and Japanese bronze founders have handed the method down for many centuries; each casting is a one-off because the mould is destroyed.

Origins

A living tradition passed from person to person; it is not tied to a single dated origin. It belongs to the cultural world of Japan and Korea.

Credits

Sources

Get the app

Lost-Wax Bronze Casting is one of 8 craft designs in the Craft Designs of the World app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Submitted to the App Store and Google Play; in review. Store links appear here the day it goes live. One app, many traditions, no account needed.

See all 8 craft designs in the app

In review on theApp StoreIn review on theGoogle Play

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