Since becoming an organizer of weekly protests at the New England headquarters of ICE in April 2025 (
Bearing Witness @ ICE), I've been searching for an additional way I can support the cause of helping local immigrant families with my jewelry.
After months of different ideas floating around in my head, none feeling quite right, the idea to make a miniature protest sign struck me. And RESIST seemed to be just the right message to capture my feelings about the work we need to be doing now.
I endeavored to create a necklace that I can sell to help raise money for mutual aid organizations in Massachusetts. Here are the steps it took for me to bring this necklace to life!
Starting with a solid block of wax and sharp steel tools, I carved the miniature sign that I had seen in my head.
I attached my wax RESIST sign to a "sprue tree" I created, along with other wax pieces for my
New England Nature line that I am also creating. A sprue tree is formed intentionally so that all of the pieces are connected in a way that will allow molten metal to flow freely into each cavity that is formed when the wax is melted out the plaster I will eventually pour around it. This is called "lost wax casting."
You can never be too safe while working with fine particulates and molten metal!
When I stir the fine plaster, or investment, to pour gently around my wax sprue tree, I only have about 7 minutes to work until it starts to harden. This machine has a vacuum, which allows me to vacuum the air out of the investment and ensure there are no air bubbles around my wax sprue tree.
Within the 7 minutes I have to work the investment before it begins to harden, I use the vacuum twice - once while the liquid investment is in the mixing bowl, and once after I pour it into the steel cylinder I put around my wax sprue tree, called a flask. The liquid investment is very fine and fills in all the cavities around my sprue tree and hardens, preserving the fine details of my wax carvings.
After waiting a minimum of two hours for the investment to dry or cure, I pull off the rubber base from my sprue tree, and place my flask upside down in a kiln. After heating up over 14 hours, going all the way up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit then bringing it back down and holding it at 1100 degrees, the wax has fully melted out and left perfectly formed cavities to fill with molten metal. I prepare recycled sterling silver (that I source from a certified recycled refinery), heating it in an electric crucible to 1250 degrees until it is molten.
Always casting with a buddy (for safety and assistance), I remove my flask from the kiln, turn it right-side up again and place it atop a chamber on the vacuum. It's important that there is suction below the flask to ensure the molten metal will make it into all of the areas it should. Once the flask is on the vacuum, I lift the crucible containing the molten silver with tongs, and pour it carefully but quickly into the top of my flask. There's no time to spare as the metal and flask are both cooling off quickly and you need to be sure that the metal remains liquid enough to fill in every tiny space it should!
After waiting for the metal to cool so it is no longer red, I then quench the flask in a bucket of water to cool it off. You must stir it, as the water begins to boil, the flask is so hot! Then the big reveal happens, and you get to see if all your work was successful!
When silver is poured oxides form on the surface - but they are easily removed!
Here are my pieces after a quick bath in the "pickle", a mild citric acid soak. Gratefully all of my originals came out great so I had options when picking the RESIST sign I'd like to replicate!
I chose my favorite sign, created a silicone mold using a special tool called a vulcanizer, which applies heat and pressure to create a mold.
Using a "wax injector" (kind of like a crock pot under pressure), I was able to shoot wax into my rubber mold and create replicas of my original RESIST sign! Sooo exciting!
And we're back to creating a new sprue tree with all of my replicas!
Here is the flask I prepped with my sprue tree full of RESIST signs.
Another casting session, and I finally have my collection of RESIST signs!
A quick brush shows how easily the oxides can be removed from the surface after casting.
After another successful cast, my sprue trees have been pickled and using special heavy duty cutters I removed all the signs from the sprues. There's still clean up to do at my workbench to remove any trace of where each sign was connected to the sprue tree, but I'm almost there!
At last, the final piece! I decided to string these signs on this wonderful wax cotton cord that I sourced from a factory that makes it right nearby in Pepperell, Massachusetts.
I couldn't resist using upcycled buttons to close these special necklaces.
Thanks for following me on this journey. I'm so grateful to be able to bring this vision to life, and to help raise money for the incredible mutual aid groups bringing much needed support to our immigrant neighbors across our state.
Laurie Lynn Berezin
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Laurie Lynn Berezin
Author