I had a good start yesterday. Having experiemtned with many tools now I will be able to do a poper tutorial on making best use of latex under different circumstances.
I’ve used filler, paints, brushes of all kinds, and now it’s finally paying off. My lekku are looking good and my montral can be trimmed down today 🙂 I tried to get video of the trimming process but had instagram fail. so to the camera and tripod!
I can also get some photos the laying up in progress 🙂
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I’ve done this before, so thought I’d capture it for posterity 😉
I printed the concept art at full scale. What is helpful with these is the flat back. SO we can use the profile as the very first piece to cut.
 
This is then taped perpendicularly to card that will form the back. Once the frame is taped then it’s time to try for shaping the back. This is done by eye which can be a bit off.
To create the sides tape the frame to paper and cut radiating strips out. These offer something for tape to adhere to.
 
Then these are cut apart and transfered to card for more careful shaping. Keeping the profile shape helps keep this stable as well.
Once taped to the form it is possible to see where shaping needs to happed. As this is a template it’s possible to only alter one side.
Here only the left has been altered.
The top seam also can be adjusted. And the entire pice taken off the form.
I have used a similar method previously for my Ahsara Zavros ensemble:
I used sheer pantihose to smooth the foam. Urethane foam is lovely and squishy but is fragile. The material also allows minimal seepage of latex into the foam to help keep them fairly soft.
Latex shrinks as it cures to the thinner the layer the better.
This is also how I make all my Twi’lek lekku- skinned foam  🙂 It takes patience. latex cures very fast in thin layers.
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This is where I left her Montral. The lekku are the next on the agenda.
 
I have a cunning plan, but I have managed to move and misplace or actually corretly store so many costume elements this year that I am not sure where all my lekku making materials are.
Sadly probably no pictures while I actually do the work. Latex all over the place and latex cures super fast when in thin layers so it’s easy to lift finger prints or grab fibres from anything if I am not careful 🙂 But it’ll be much the same way I worked on all my lekku.
So that is the plan for tomorrow- work out the lekku proportions and start marking the montral for seamlines with the lekku- I hope to hide the seam in the paint.
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Yes, today is dedicated to getting latex in all the molds. Possibly also making latex molds, possibly also getting my last scraps of forex (foamed PVC) and various small costume parts sorted.
But definitely all the latex as I am going to try and get a cast of my Shaak Ti montral as well as Ahsoka 🙂
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So having practiced so many times with my Ahsoka molds, and previous methods with Shaak Ti.. I may actually be able to use what I have learnt with Ahsoka to use my Shaak Ti molds again 🙂
(Photo above: metal shelves with cement molds of different sizes, bottom shelf supporting in particular the two part molds for Ahsoka Tano and Shaak Ti creature effects.)
This is very exciting. To find a method that creates a predictable latex cast, that is durable and light. I think I may need to do a video guide as if takes both hands, well full body, and is so messy it would ruin my camera equipment to try and get photos.
But it winds up cheaper than a purely slush cast piece with about the same flex and is lighter. I still need to test if the support I used for Shaak Ti will work with this new method, but I do have hope.
(photo above: two part molds resting against a white wall and on grass with exposed topsoil.)
The cast has also not pulled from the molds as much as previous which means it is likely to shrink less. While these molds were relatively easy to work with it may prove more troublesome with the Shaak Ti molds as there are more ridges. But these are exactly why I want to keep using this method- the ridges tend to cause latex to clump into deeper parts of the mold and crete weak thin casts over the higher parts.
Tomorrow I will test it.
This method may also work for Turian jaws and mask 🙂 Right now the flat back cast for the jaws work very nicely.
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I’ve been looking through my stash of fabrics with a calculating eye and have finally settled on a few absolutely desperate to make right now projects. Most of which use my stash in some way or another 🙂 This is all locked in and I have plans for what occasion each will be for 🙂
 
Freya from Hunstman: Winter’s War (robes and armour) & Norma Shearer from Upstage
The armour can be from my stash (so lucky!) so can Norma’s gown. It’s the robes that is currently making my brain itch because I need to calculate and create my patterns precisely.
But that slinky velvet. Obsessed. There is a preview that has survived and it’s at the NZ film archive! The skirt front of the gown isn’t so exciting but the rest is. And I have many options to adapt the front of the skirt. And a lot of research as slinky gowns abound in the 1920s.
 
An early mantua.Â
These are illustrative only, I am trying to debate between my stash options of black ribbed silk or a shot pale blue polyester. 9m of each!
Sheer 1870s
I have about 12m of cotton net. Now that I have my fluffy Robe de Style in lace I can put it all towards a fashion style that has had a dedicated folder for over a decade!
These are “new” projects. I am still working on my wall of things but these are mostly stash busting so really just a shifting around in my workroom 🙂
To finish:
Marie Antoinette: thought I’d forgeotten? AHAHAHAHAH! All my trims are here so time to start patterning and washing sizing out of trims 🙂
Cleves red velvet: this is long term hand sewing. And fiddly. But everything is put aside.
Valois: the skirt needs hemming and I am worried I have been rushing the stitches. Also the silk is insanely difficult to work with. I have scrap silk that is less difficult to try!
Silver Spanish: it’s lining, so much lining. I also took out some extra weight from the skirt to make it wearable.
Princess de Cleves: You’d think a doublet would be easy. Nope. But I figure I can couch some braid over the existing braid for some extra texture!
Hannibal gown: reassembly!
Phantom wedding gown: in storage with the Hannibal gear, no rush, but it is silly to leave it this long!
Mina: I have to make the lining absolutely perfect as the silk has zero stretch and all my bodices have had some stretch. I now have the same ripstop cotton as for the bustle so it will be done!!! For my birthday? Maybe…
Worth Sunburst: on hold, I did just find my 9m length of pale aqua silk chiffon so I may wind up with my own interpretation of the gown seeing as there are two extant versions already. Also I have glass pearls set aside and that is more of the Kyoto style than Met style 🙂
Ahsoka: lost a bit of steam on this. Still want to finish her 🙂
Mothma: my dress shrank :/ I’m thinking of passing on the fabric parts to just reset.
Darth Talon: New bikini is fantastic! ANd I do need new lekku. My 2nd set are just too heavy 🙂
Ashara: potentially be remade into my own SWTOR jedi knight Neimhaille 🙂
Nyreen: With Andromeda coming out and more female turians running around I dug out my robes for her that were about to be thrown out. So resizing them 🙂
Leia: my senatorial robes have just gone into the wash, I got new photos for my tutorial, and finally found a pair of soles that work! SHe has no heel, her shoes are made with that really gummy rubber and there are so many cool seams in her boots anyway.
Draenei: slightly on the back burner again. I have a habit of wanting to figure out how then figuring it out and then not really wanting to finish 😉
So at the heart of it I love patterning, and figuring stuff out, not so much the final stages. Ah well 😉
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These are two casts from the same mold. I love my Ashara but I basically made her from an imperfect cast. The mold had separated a bit making for blunt montral and the tops of the lekku was too thin so I cut them off. This leads to the montral sticking away from the face.
 
 
Just to show that Shara was an imperfect cast!
Again, my grumpy cast is doing double duty while my good cast has my horns 🙂
I am having a day of fatigue and turning it into a day of rest, and have been also having some antiinflammatories, which seem to be at least helping a bit so that’s great 🙂
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Love them, will shorten the front ones a bit but the colour just gets darker in pics which is great 🙂
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Believe it or not the extreme sun is not helpful casting latex but this is the base hold everything together layer, next up is the evening and texturising.
The montral molds are in the pink bin. They are all different shades but they do match 🙂
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The latex has already pulled away at the tips 🙂 my new recipe is fantastic, I may be able to get all product from the one person too 🙂
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