Ghana -- casting brass! I have read about the process, but we saw the whole thing! At the edge of Kumasi, the Ashanti capital, there was a cultural museum with demonstrations of lots of crafts. At first we saw them making wax shapes for the lost wax process. Next to them were the clay balls that were enclosing the small wax figures. Then they took us out back for the rest of the process. One fire was contained by 1 meter high walls on 3 sides, and the clay vessels were being fired in there.
We were not sure if the wax was being absorbed into the clay or running out. But, as it should, it disappeared. Then there was a second smaller fire that contained the crucible for melting the brass. A small fan salvaged out of something or other, and hitched up to a battery, was bring up the temperature of the the charcoal fire. The cruicible was salvaged from a refridgerator, and the ladle seems to have been handmade from a small can and a handle.
With tongs handmade by a blacksmith somewhere, each clay mold was brought out of the big fire and propped up so that the brass could be poured in. Later they were broken open to reveal the brass figure. Back in front of the building, an electric-run wire wheel was being used for some minimal smoothing.
It was amazing to see the whole process. We bought a small figure of a man and wife sitting at a table eating fufu. And we bought a creche of African-style figures.
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