Nothin’ says lovin’

…like brains from the oven!

Brrrrrrrains!!

I made this little lovely from Sculpey.  Sculpey is a clay that stays soft while you work with it, but then you put it in a regular oven, and it becomes ceramic-like.  This piece is going to (eventually) go inside another resin casting, but I’ve yet to finish the plaster portion for it. 

The suspense is killing you, I’m sure!

Skelly needs a new skull

I’ve been trying to think of the best way to make a template, if you will, for creating a skull (a round object) out of copper sheet (decidedly not a round material).

By the Power of Clayskull...I have the Power!!!

The ideas haven’t exactly been forthcoming.  This is the best I’ve managed so far.  Somehow I don’t think a squishy clay head is going to work for molding copper sheet around.

My next effort is going to be using the nitrogen widget from a can of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.  Oh, the ideas borne of beer!

(Jane- notice the thing in the bottom right of the photo?  I haven’t forgotten; mojitos or not!)

Skelly 2

skelly w/arms, shoulderblades, pelvis

So here he is, a little farther along.  I’m still working on that skull thing. 

This particular resin man is moving along so slowly because I’m a bit afraid to cast the skeleton into the resin.  It’s taken a lot of effort to build, and the thing with resin is, you only get one shot.  I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the resin I currently have; as I will cast it, and the exterior of the figure will not harden. 

I finally got fed up enough with this problem that I ordered some big-kid supplies from Alumilite.  I can’t wait.  I will be working with silicone rubber moldmaking material, and a 1:1 ratio, 2-component resin.

Skelly 1

There’s been one resin man I’ve been working on for quite some time.  I got the idea that it might be cool to create one that had a skeleton entirely made of copper wire.  I started with the legs, which were easy enough, but when I got to the pelvis, the whole thing fell apart.  How do you make something, which is essentially a plate-form, from wire? 

I then decided to “expand my palette,” and use, well, whatever I could get my hands on.

skelly w/o arms

His eyes are LED lights, his spine is a spring (Tigger!!).  The “ribs” are woven into the spring, creating a very cool vertebrae-type effect.  The skull is wire mesh; I’ve never been very happy with the way it turned out, and I’m working on changing it to copper plate (hopefully).

Although it doesn’t look it…

I am actually trying to keep up this site!  This time, I have a valid excuse (or two).  My computer crashed, necessitating a complete reload.  Then, after I got it reloaded, it got a virus- and had to be completely re-formatted.

Sigh.

So now, I’m back.  And I’m going to continue as if I didn’t just take a month or so off from this thing.