Question time

So while my online demonstration of mold making is not really optimised as it’s slow going but here is a question:

Can anyone guess at why I have been trimming the edges of my molds? I just cut back not only the excess drip marks but also the thin edge left behind.

I am curious as to what might be presumed about this “extra step” 🙂

I’ll be posting a separate post once I have finished. But few clues:

~ biggest clue- this mold is 50lbs (22.9kg)

~ I have seen professional mold-makers in action so I picked up some habits used on large scale projects.

~ I have been making molds since.. well the late 90s (shhh) so I have a lot of experience in making and maintaining them (lots of experience at doing things in a rush as well as well planned)

~ think of these as objects in and of themselves as well as an intermediary object to make other things 🙂 And how you make the things from this.

~The mold is currently on the ground.

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#Ahsokatano progress

This works! I love me some smart bb and wp!

#ahsokalives first texture pass. I need to let it all cool so texture can be carved in. Atm it’s all smooshing. Overnight will do it by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

Yes! #maleficent horn texture and #ahsokalives #togruta skin marking success! Now to do this over the entire sculptures!!!! by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

#ahsokalives #ahsokatano texture worked really well! My camera has low res though so had to do a close up. Next stop, #maleficent2014] bypinkdiamond, on Flickr

#ahsokatano sculpt prepping for mold making. Built up as much support out of foam as I could and melting clay while doing so. I may want to clean all of this after! Definitely will be mixing in some other colours. Purple and blue? by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

#ahsokatano from the side. Polystyrene and clay support them clay wall. That brick red? 2.5 kg. There are 2.24 pounds per kg. I think there is about 6kg of grey clay. It fills a crock pot anyway.
by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

#ahsokatano 10kg of ultracal plaster, about. 3l of water, big guess there though, and the top of. The mold is made!
by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

#ahsokatano left to rest. I checked and it is cool enough to leave it be. While it steams it is prone to cracking but this is quite cool. The towels are wet to help this cure. by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

So after a very long period of no progress I suddenly have some? It’s all to do with working on my Maleficent horns. And having already cast my Draenei horns. I just built up my skill set from last time so was able to not only work faster but get texture details I have not managed before! Rounded wrinkles of a certain size have been the bane of my existence! I’m now finding them fun, so all the work that goes into them has a positive result which yeah- makes the repetitive nature soothing rather than stressful

Side note, I now have a drywall trade account (well not trade trade, just a normal account). None of the mold supply company stocks it. But it’s still used by tradies for buildings. So… what the heck! Seriously, I haven’t found it in more than a year at any of the SFX supply places. So I grabbed the 22.5kg bag while it’s still in the country!

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| ahsokatano ashoka casting molding sfx

And more molding process with ultracal

Yesterday I built up clay walls and supports for the horns. I made sure to really support them as the ultracal winds up very heavy during the molding process.

Here you can see the shallow keys cut into the clay walls.

I used a brush to apply the product and so totally was unable to get in progress photos! Anyway, I mix and apply with the same 2″ brush so that the molds are nicely raised and evenly applied. And yes, there is a vertical lay up element. This is possible because ultrcacal forms a gel like structure as it cures. So while there is a lot of slumping you can brush upwards and get it to stay vertical.

I usually use warm water to speed the curing process and so avoid slumping as much as possible however today I did not.

This process is messy and I did splash over the clay walls so I transferred the entire piece on to a wool blanket.

Here you can see how much clay I used to support the weight of the molds. I could only do this because it is winter and the clay is extremely solid when cold!

After this I used a small craft saw and a metal paint scraper to remove excess plaster. I normally do this earlier but it’s been a while!

I had to be careful as the plaster is still damp and so not at full strength. This made breaking off the very narrow pieces easy but I could also have potentially cracked any part of the mold that was fragile.

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| casting draenei horns molding sfx

More molding- little silicone molds

Today I cleaned my Mon Mothma brooch of the badly cured silicone and remolded using caulking silicone.

I have seen a few tutorials on this but I wanted to see if I could add to the general knowledge having experimented over seven years 🙂

Supplies:

Warm water

Dishwashing soap

Caulking silicone

I used Selleys roof and guttering silicone as it is translucent and allows me to see how thick my layers are. I used regular clay for the walls.

I also covered the surface of my brooch with a very thin layer of vaseline.

I use warm water as it speeds up the curing process considerably.

Method:

Squeeze caulking in to a mi =x of soap and water. I used about 1/4 soap to water. And I often use more. The soap detacks the silicone while working with it but allows the product to still stick to itself.

I deliberately make noodle shapes to immediately expose as much of the silicone to water was possible.

I then put soap on my hands to prevent the silicone sticking to me! For larger projects I use the warm soap and water in my larger container and also soap all the way to my elbows to avoid any accidental sticking.

I then put the silicone in my hands and work the noodles together to form one mass. It’s very important to work it gently but to also push any water out and to the surface.

I then put it back in the water if it is still very loose and not curing. Take care! Sometimes you can over cure the surface and get lumps.

I push a very thin layer in to the piece and check for air bubbles. Once this is done I set the piece in the mold.

One in place I use small piece to press around the edges, pushing air bubbles out as I go.

Finally I build up the last layer and smooth the surface. As the caulk is not self leveling you do need to make sure it is flat as possible if you are going to use it as a flat back mold.

Once this is cured I will trim the edges, and use more caulk to glue the back to a flat surface.

For very large pieces I do put the whole object and mold in a large container of water. I will then also remove the mold from the object and repeat.

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| casting diy molding silicone

Mold repair work!

Never got these uploaded for some reason..

Leia bikini- extra silicon added, also fibreglass filler to help prevent warping. Still some repair work to go to rebuild one of the back straps that got flattened.