A number of years ago I was given a set of old leather punches. I liked the designs and wondered how I could incorporate them into my metalwork. After a time I began to heat the tools and use them to melt impressions into carved wax. The amorphous qualities that I can capture in the wax, and then solidify into metal through casting, are unique to this process. Motifs warp and become obscured as the wax melts; each piece acquiring a uniquely spontaneous character. The immediacy of this process challenges the other more laborious techniques that I often use in my work. I can file and prepare the wax form so as it may appear contained and controlled, yet that combination of pressure and heat between the hot tool and the wax always produces something unanticipated and original.