Disco Fever

I was in the art supply store, when I passed the rhinestone display, and I couldn’t resist.  I bought five packets of 5mm clear rhinestones.  Then I made this guy:

nekkid

He was supposed to be red, but the stupid “exterior hardener” I added to the mixture bleached out the dye.  His transformation began.  Here he is at 175 rhinestones:

hoodie

Here he is at 700 rhinestones:

disco pants!

I’ve bought 385 more rhinestones, but I don’t think I’ll need them all.  I don’t intend to cover the rectangular area in the back.  It’s a little surprising how completely cathartic and relaxing it is to glue tiny sparkly things on a tiny red (orange! grr!) man- except for the crotchy bits.

Limey Bastard

I tried, yet again, to get a good mold from a lemon (or in this case, a lime- it just met the “shape criteria.”).  This particular outcome was instrumental in my decision to just cough up the hundred-or-so dollars, and get some decent moldmaking material in a larger quantity that 1lb. at a time.

It started out well enough.  I built my mold box (like I should have done the last time).

I tried to adhere to the lessons I learned from the previous attempt.  I glued the lime to the bottom, so it wouldn’t float up to the top, wasting moldmaking material beneath it.  I glued wooden sticks into the corners, to further economize the moldmaking material usage.  It should have turned out great.

But I’m sure you know where this is going.

I also decided to try making another man-mold at the same time.  I carefully built his mold box in the same manner.  (At this time, I realized that the shape of traditional coffins probably came from trying to achieve economy of wood use.)

The problem arose when I mixed the moldmaking material, and realized I didn’t have enough to do both molds…after I’d already poured the lime mold, and was halfway through filling the man-mold.  I had to make a quick decision about which of the two I’d choose to “survive,” and the lime lost.

If I’d had my 5lb. tub o’ stuff, that wouldn’t have happened.  I can’t wait for it to get here.

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).

Lemon Mold 2

Continuing the lemon mold…

I taped the two halves of the mold together, filled it with plaster, and hoped for the best.  I left it overnight to cure.  When I came back in the morning, I was a little afraid of the result because of the massive crack down both halves of the mold.

I started trying to pry the two halve apart, and was pleasantly surprised.  Inside was something that very closely resembled a plaster lemon!  However, it was clear that this mold was a one-shot.

 

Eventually, I had to take the thing out back and beat the crap out of it on our concrete patio to get the rest of it out.  I am now the proud owner of a plaster lemon.

Little Resin People 1

While I’m generally happy with the way the resin self-portrait turned out, I wasn’t terribly happy with the way the first mold turned out.  In the “Little Resin People” posts, I’m going to write about the process of making the master figure and mold as if I knew what I was doing the first time. 

Part 1 – Clay Dude in a Rubber Suit 

I started with a “human analog” that I sculpted from clay.  When it was dry, I filed it in several places to make the surfaces smoother (I can’t say that it actually made much difference).  The material I chose to make the mold from was paint-on latex rubber.  Because the instructions said to seal porous surfaces (like clay) first, I sprayed the figure several times with aerosol resin spray.  That’s why he’s a little shiny.  After this photo was taken, I used darker gray modeling clay to fill out some of the lumpier portions of the legs.  I sprayed over those parts with resin as well.

Next began the laborious process of applying the mold material.  This involved several iterations of applying a thin layer of the latex with a paintbrush, waiting for it to dry, then applying again.  The entire process took about three weeks.   (Patience and I aren’t on a first-name basis, so that part was tough!)  I added a modeling clay “collar” around the back, to give a stopping point to the resin when I pour it.

I applied the rubber layers to the back first, then adhered the figure to a board with more modeling clay, and started on the front. 

Part 2 – The Mummy

After applying the last layer of latex, I made a mother mold over the whole thing with plaster bandages.  During the first casting, I learned the lesson of needing something to keep the rubber mold under control - really thin rubber doesn’t hold itself upright very well once you start pouring a viscous liquid into it. 

When the mother mold was dry, I took the three pieces apart- now I am ready to make my army!

 

Acetabula Renovo

Today is the 2-year anniversary of my surgery.  A few months ago, I got this image of a fluffy little bunny holding up an x-ray, showing the screws from a PAO operation (I think I have 5 screws total; one day I’ll get my ortho to let me sneak off with an old x-ray of mine).

This design is heavily influenced by Luke Chueh’s work (I highly recommend you check it out sometime).

 

This is what the final version is shaping up to be like.  Later I’ll post the marker-colored, pre-PhotoShop version.

Lemon mold

I wanted to make a mold of a lemon for a project. 

Making a mold of a food item has proven to be tricky.  I was afraid to make a latex rubber mold, since they take so long to complete, and I didn’t feel like trying to extricate a mushy lemon from the mold in the end. 

I tried using a room temperature vulcanizing polyurethane mold making material; the kind that you pour over the item.  This went really wrong, really fast [cue $23 mistake-of-the-day].  I didn’t make a proper mold box; I tried to use a modified plastic cup.  It wasn’t tall enough to to get 1/2″ of mold making material around all sides of the lemon, so I cut a hole in the first cup, and hot-glued another cup to the bottom of the first. I ended up wasting a lot of material just filling up the areas between the lemon and the sides of the container.  Therefore, I didn’t have enough material to cover more than 2/3 of the lemon.

So I ended up with 2/3 of a lemon mold.  In the trash.

I was hesitant to try plaster, again because of the mushy-lemon fear, so next time I tried using a product called Insta-Mold.  For the first attempt, I mixed it using a spoon.  For my efforts, I got a squishy mess, the consistency of tapioca.  It kept “weeping” water, and didn’t pick up any of the details of the lemon.  I figured I had mixed it badly, and tried again.  For the second attempt, I used an electric hand mixer.   This time I got…a squishy mess, the consistency of tapioca.  It wouldn’t dry.  It had air bubbles all throughout.

I turned to the trusty Intarweb to figure out the error of my ways.  Perhaps I’d still managed to mix it incorrectly?  For once, it turned out not to be me; I wish I’d found this page before I tried using that crap:

Instamold is a terrible product and I do not suggest it for anyone.

Ah.  Well there you go. [only an $8 mistake that time]

Plaster it is! 

This time, I did actual! research! before attempting to do the plaster mold.  I found this page, on how to build an army of Gromits, extremely helpful, even though I was using different materials. 

I built a box out of a coffee container.  I mixed the plaster super-extra-thoroughly.  I placed the lemon carefully in the center, and poured the bottom half of the mold.  I added two modeling clay nubbies to act as keys for the top half of the mold.  I (patiently!!) let the plaster set.  I painted a thin layer of latex rubber over the exposed plaster, then poured the top layer of super-extra-thoroughly-mixed plaster.  I let that set up.  I braced myself for the gooey grossness of a mushy lemon, and I got…

TA-DAH!!!!

It actually worked.  I couldn’t believe it.  My husband didn’t quite understand the “I made a mold of a lemon Happy Dance,” but I did it anyway.

…of course, now I’m going to attempt to cast a plaster lemon in this plaster mold, and we’ll see how that goes.  I’ve sprayed the mold several times over with resin, so I’m hopeful.