Bird mask: Moulding and casting

1) Seeing as the little bird mask sculpt didn't have a flat back to it, I had to cast it by means of a two part mould. I began this by finding a container that would fit the sculpt whilst still accommodating enough room on every side so the silicone wouldn't be too weak. I then filled half the container, in this case a small ramekin glass, with air dry clay and buried half the sculpt in this making sure it was air tight. Silicone was then poured over the remaining half of the sculpt that was left exposed, and left to set.

2) On taking out this half of the set silicone after the going off time, I accidentally pushed the tool I was using for leverage in getting the mould out of the container, into the sculpt itself. Because of this a little repair work was needed between casting. I also took this opportunity to trim down the silicone to fit back into the same container; it had a rim to it, so needed to be cut back down to size.

3) The second half of the mould after it had been cast: Quite a bad mould really, with a lot of airbubbles, but in no place they couldn't be simply sanded quickly away once the mask piece was cast so I saw no reason to completely re-cast this half. This half of the mould is also a slightly darker green; I put more catalyst in so it would go off a little faster this time.

4) The resin cast straight out of the mould pieces! It worked! My next step will be sanding down the edges that were left where the two mould pieces met.

Pigment Casting.

I experimented with a few different coloured pigments during the casting process of making these faces. The first column shows the three different characters with no pigment. The second shows Yool and Ty with pink pigments, (although Yools turned out too pale so I re-cast this one afterwards.) The owl is cast with a bronze powder rubbed into the mould before resin is poured in; bronze powder was within the resin as well to ensure the colour transferred all the way through the cast. The final column shows some random colour experimentation that I thought would suit the characters; Yool as a gentle pastel blue, Ty with stronger golds and khakis and the owl as a pale yellow. To achieve the pastel colours I had to be really precise with how much pigment I put in, as it was really easy to add too much and for the colours to come out too strong!

Box Making.

I asked Billy to help me out in making a box with some shelves within it in order to display my maquette face casts. I wanted to put effort into displaying these professionally, as learning how to do this was one of the points of focus I had in the last run of this project. After drawing up a simple blueprint for measurements, cutting the pieces and beginning to assemble them, I realised that we forgot to take into consideration the extra 5mm that the sides of the box added. Because of this, I stuck together what I could and will have to re-cut some new side pieces asap. I plan on simply painting the box a matt colour once it's assembled, as I want it to look smart but not detract from the casts themselves.  

Fast Cast casting with Silicone moulds.

This shows the surviving sculpt after been removed from the silicone mould. Resin has been poured into the mould which was cleaned out beforehand.  

Shows the desk area while casting the faces; Essential items where a set of scales, two part resin, pots and stirrers, silicone mould, newspaper to protect the table surface.