Jewelry Artist Podcast: Wax Carving for Metal Casting with Kate Wolf

Some of the stages jewelry goes through on its way to becoming a finished piece look pretty bizarre to the uninitiated. This is easy to forget if, for example, soldered but not pickled parts, or diamond ring mounts without the diamonds in them, are familiar to you. If you’re a jeweler who sells your work, though, it’s a good idea to remember. Jewelry Artist podcast guest Kate Wolf is synonymous with her thoughtfully designed line of carving waxes and tools for jewelry artists.

But it was trying to help customers appreciate her wax models of jewelry that first sent her down that path. People just couldn’t get past the color of the wax to imagine what the piece would look like cast in metal.

Kate loves to carve wax jewelry models, finding the process absorbing and fulfilling. But before she was able to disappear fully into this meditative work, she focused on making improvements to the tools as well as the waxes available when she started out.

I asked her a few questions about her venture into tool design and want to share her answers with all of you. Listen to her podcast below and then read on for more from this innovator!

Jewelry Artist Podcast: Listen Now

The Line Begins

Q: What was the first wax carving tool you developed and brought to market, and what did you hope to get from it that you couldn’t get from something already out there?

A: Wolf Waxes and the 18 piece set of Wolf’s Precision Wax Carvers were both launched in 2003. They also won MJSA’s (Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America) Innovators Award.

Previously, carving waxes on the market were red, green, blue and purple—and I wanted gold. I’d carve a ring for a client with an expensive stone and they’d say, “But I thought this was going to be gold?” So I’d paint the ring gold, show it to the customer, and then take the paint off or I’d get a bad casting. 

There weren’t any wax carvers on the market that were designed by or for a jewelry artist. They didn’t have the shapes I needed and they were not sharp enough. I had the great fortune of working with a phenomenal wax carver, my dear friend Lazar Portnoy. He showed me how to make carvers out of bike spokes. I expanded on that, and with his permission took them to market. Lazar is in his 80s now and he’s still carving.

Q: What was the most challenging part of bringing out that first tool or supply, and how did you manage it?

A: Cash flow was the biggest problem. I had to scale way back on my lucrative model making career to get the products going, and I didn’t have capital or backers.

Those Tools

Q: What’s the most useful tool you have, and how so?

A: My Wax Carvers. I can’t imagine carving without them—it would be like trying to carve with my elbow. 

Q: Which tool that you’ve developed do you think is the most fun to use, and how do you use it?

A: Also the Wax Carvers. I’ve been told they look like a party when you open up the canister for the first time. They remind me of opening up a box of crayons. Each shape has specific purposes to make carving easier and more fun. (They come with a 22-page instructional booklet with step-by-step instructions.)

Related: Carving Wax with Kate Wolf

Always Learning

Q: What do you think is the most successful jewelry piece you’ve made, and in what way do you think it is successful?

A: My acorn earrings. They are in the 500 Earrings book. I look at them and they remind me of the progression of my processes. I carved them the hard way—out of a block of wax—because I didn’t know better. Now I would use my flex-shaft lathe techniques, make them in half the time, and have more fun. I think they look swellegant!

Q: If you could study one technique new to you now, which would it be? What is the attraction?

A: I’m learning how to shoot and edit video. I’m making videos of my wax carving classes and more, and will launch online mentored workshops in October.

As for a technique directly about jewelry making, that would be ornamental lathe turning using a rose engine with my Wolf Milling Wax. It’s a mesmerizing machine with endless combinations to explore.

Q: If you could study something about jewelry making with anyone in history, who would that be and what would you want to learn?

A: Georges Fouquet. He was an Art Nouveau jeweler. I would have loved to carve for him, and learn his design sensibility.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned from teaching?

A: We are all teachers and students exploring together. My best creative and process breakthroughs come from helping students with their dilemmas and frustrations.

Related: Metalsmithing Instructors Who Rock

Hear Some Hot Tips and More

Join host Katie Hacker in the Jewelry Artist podcast episode with Kate Wolf. They talk about wax carving, the business of jewelry making, and tips for jewelry artists to work more comfortably and safely at the bench.

Click the arrows to left and right below to see some of Kate’s tools in action.

All images courtesy of Kate Wolf.

Originally published 9/21/2020. Updated 5/5/2023.

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