Dad is a policeman with the St Louis City, MO police dept. and he also runs his own business making custom jewelry. He can make just about anything but most of his work is police/fire and public safety related.. I do some design work for him but this one is his own.. pretty cool..

I think he hand-carved this one outta wax and had a brass injection mold made of it for quick reproduction of the plastic copies. The plastic copies are then enclosed in the vestment material (a really fine ceramic-type mixture) then when that is fired, the plastic disintegrates. Gold and silver pieces are then cast from the cavity left in the vestment.

This one is sterling silver..

I asked him about the spokes a couple nights ago and he does occassionally have times when the metal breaks the vestment while casting.

He has a website.. I got him started on it a few years ago and let him take it the direction he wanted, but now I think it's time to step in and take the reigns back.. Dad's site is looking a little... uhhh.... ragged.. but the jewelry is beautiful!

He's been on the police force over 30 years now and has been wanting to retire for the past year, I've been trying to talk him into it as well.
He's building a new house (almost done) and has been hanging around the force to take care of the house going over-budget.. that's what happens when you build a place outta 18" diameter logs and end up having to pour an 8' deep concrete footing into a hillside before you can even think about building the foundation for the rest of the house!

When you mentioned in chat that your dad made jewelry, I had no idea he was so gifted!