cire perdue
Bronze-casting method. A model is made of wax and enclosed in an envelope of clay and plaster, with a small hole in the bottom.
When heat is applied, the wax melts and runs away through the hole, and the clay and plaster becomes a hard mould. Molten bronze is poured in and allowed to cool; then the clay envelope is cut away.
The result is a bronze cast that exactly reproduces the original and is formed in a single piece. The bronze will be hollow if the original wax model was made around a core of burnt clay. The earliest examples of the technique date from around 3000 BC, found both in Ancient Egypt and Ur.
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