Finished Mold of the VBH

I went back to California for a couple of day and had the chance to meet up with my caster. He has cleared away the 3000 pounds of clay and the underlying armature. Now all that remains in the studio is the beautiful polyurethane rubber mold sitting inside the plaster mother mold. In the first photo below you can see that he has started adding shims along the seem lines in preparation for adding the first layer of resin to a section. We discussed what type of resin he should use, polyester or epoxy, and we agreed that he would send me some samples.

Waste Mold

I have documented the process of making the waste mold for my sculpture of a smiling head. If you scroll down to the bottom of the post you can see the step by step of the mold making process.

After I cleared away the clay sculpture and armature I put the pieces back together and used segments of bike tires to tie the pieces into place at their supports. After letting the mold dry and letting my swollen finger rest, I turned the mold over with some help because it was very heavy.

After the burlap and wood supports were added I began to remove the individual mold pieces from the clay sculpture. The suction of the clay and the complicated detail of the hair made this process very difficult. After releasing the first piece I chose to collapse the armature inside the clay sculpture and remove the clay around it to make the remaining sections of the mold easier to release.

At this point the mold is half made. The first 3 photos showed the seem lines being created with aluminum shims, the first splatter coat, and the slip layer. I still need to add a layer of burlap and then some wood supports. At this point I had to stop working because my left hand ring finger started to become sore (I have "trigger finger," a sort of inflammation of the flexor sheath at the base of my ring finger causing it to stiffen and lock up).

Then I added some brush strokes of slip which will help me later when I need o remove the layer of burlap that I will be adding next.

Next I added the first layer of plaster over the whole thing. I used molding plaster which is much softer and easier to break away later then the plaster I will use for casting the piece.

I began to make the waste mold by deciding where the seam lines would be and building in shim walls. This was difficult because I had to imagine decide how large I could make a piece before it wrapped around too much of the sculpture and would then not be able to be removed. I managed to break it down into six pieces.

Smiling Head before casting

Now the head has more definite features. I am still not satisfied with the volume of the hair or the proportion and depth of the facial features, however I am enjoying the work.

VBH Mold Progress

Here I have some extremely exciting photos I received from my caster in Berkeley. He has finished the mother mold and has begun to remove the pieces!

Below is a picture of the mother mold of one of the ears. You can see the holes that have been drilled around the edges that allow it to be bolted to the other pieces.

This last picture shows the polyurethane rubber mold sitting in its mother mold. The texture of the surface of the rubber shows that this is a piece of the hair!

Prints and Sketches

In addition to my sculptures I have started to make some drawings and prints to help me shape my ideas for pieces and to help me add some variation to the media I work with.

The prints in the two photos above are made by rolling ink out onto a glass plate, laying a piece of paper on top of the ink and then drawing on the back on the paper to press it into the ink. Both above and below are images of the sculpture i am currently working on. In the first photo there is a print of the face of the sculpture from a straight on view. It shows the type of expression I am experimenting with. The rest of the black and white prints are sculpture ideas and the color prints are printmaking experiments.

My Mermaid Friend

The photos below show the progression of my clay modeling over the first three sittings with my friend. The armature from the previous post is under the clay sculpture now. I decided to go with a great big smile for the expression because a smile does some very dynamic and challenging things to the surfaces of the face. As you can see from the progression of the features I am learning as I go.