January 02, 2001

Now comes the easiest part of the "hat" just make a snake with the Sculpey and cut at 1 inch intervals. Then Put them one next to each other and close them at the top. Use the stamp to give it the rough stone texture and Voila!!! (that's french) it's done

January 06, 2001

After 67 hours of sculpting, here is the finished product. not bad if I do say so myself :-) I added R2 and Jar Jar to show you the scale of the piece. Now I will let it harden a day or 2 more and I will be ready to make the mold.

January 13, 2001

Time to make a mold. First I made a box that allowed 2 inches all around the head. Next step is to surround the head with plasticine at the halfway mark of the head. This is where the 2 molds halves will meet and facilitate the removal of the positive when copies are made. You then must make holes all around the flat surface

so that you create "keys" that will lock and keep the 2 halves from slipping and making a deformed head positive.

January 13, 2001

This is what the silicone mold material looks like. It consists of 2 parts, a resin (like honey) and a hardener (Luke's blue milk - LOL - like cake batter really). You measure equal amounts of both and mix both in a clean bigger bowl. you have 20 minutes to pour before the silicone starts to harden.

January 13, 2001

Then I poured the mixture slowly in the corner of the box, to prevent bubbles from forming and making holes when the silicone is hard. Holes are the enemy :) Because of the size of the head it took the entire gallon to fill - all $145 worth. If anyone knows a cheaper product let me know - LOL.

I have ordered another batch so the mold lesson will continue next week.

January 17, 2001

Now it's time to mold the other half. I flipped the box upside down, and removed the foamcore that was the bottom of the box. You can see how I stacked the plastiscine to support the head sculpt.

January 17, 2001

I have removed the plastiscine bricks and we can now see the exposed back of the statue sculpt. The blue goo is the silicone that leaked into the bottom half. We will get rid of that before pouring the other half.

January 17, 2001

Most of the excess plastiscine is now removed. You can now see the blue which is the hardened silicone mold that was poured over the face last Saturday. I now spray the entire exposed area with a release agent to prevent the 2 halves from glueing together and then I am ready to pour the silicone mixture into the box.

January 19, 2001

The mold is now cured and we can open it. First step is obvious, remove the cardboard or foamcore casing that was once your box. You can see the line here where the 2 pieces join together.

January 19, 2001

Once the box is removed this is what your mold will look like. The hole on the left is the base of the head where we will pour the liquid to make our positive copies. Now use a wooden spatula - NO METAL PLEASE or you will tear the mold - and start spreading the 2 parts apart.

January 19, 2001

After about 15 minutes I managed to open the mold. As you can see, 90% of the time, making molds will destroy your sculpture. But don't cry, you will be able to make copies :)

January 19, 2001

This isn't really a step but I found it very interesting how you can see the different sculpey layers like the earth's crust. A cool view of the evolution your sculpture.

January 19, 2001

Once you remove your sculpture you have your finished mold. Isn't it cool how you get an optical illusion when looking at it? It looks like the face is popping out but it is really curved inside like a bowl.

January 20, 2001

Time to make my first copy. I use a resin called Por-A-Cast. It is the same principle as the silicone. You mix 2 equal parts of liquid. the cool thing about this product is that it hardens in 30 seconds! right before your eyes. Here you see the 2 halves attached tightly together with the opening at the top.

REMEMBER to spray a release agent in the mold before pouring. If you forget this important step your mold is trash and can NEVER be used again.

January 20, 2001

Now that the resin is 1 piece it is easier to pull the mold off as it wont rip into pieces. Here you can see the bottom half pulled off and how some excess spreads out to the sides. Don't worry about that, you can remove it with an exacto blade.