Wednesday 25 June 2014

Model/Prop Making - Casting Session 1!

Todays session was de-moulding and casting in fibre glass!

At the beginning of the session I took the master out the mould and cleaned the inside of the silicone to get rid of any embedded bits of clay in the detailing.
 


FROM HERE ON OUT GLOVES AND A MASK WERE DEFINITELY REQUIRED!!! The combination of fumes and metal powder are not good for the lungs! The next stage was to brush metal powder around the inside of the mould - I chose copper as I thought the warmer colour would suit the design. When finished this can be buffed into a shiny finish, not much is needed and too much can cause a powdery outside - not desirable! Then it was time to add the first coat - a gel coat that is enough of the gel to provide a decent coat with 2% catalyst added, and into this I added some of the copper powder (about a tea spoon) and a tiny bit of green pigment so that when polished it would have an antique copper effect.

Here it is with the gel coat!
 

 From here the next step was using fibre glass tissue, cutting it into pieces and small strips and putting the gel onto it - the gel started to break down the tissue and softened the fibre glass until it was maleable enough to stick to the gel coat. The job of the fibre glass is basically to reinforce the gel coat.

 
Here it is, after being de-moulded before any polishing and before the fibre glass edges had been sanded. For the last bit of the session I got some wire wool and managed to buff a couple of sections and below are the results on one of the acorns and a small section around it. 



Tuesday 17 June 2014

Model/Props - Mouldmaking!

After an incredibly busy couple of weeks I'm back to write up the last two of my sessions!
 
Today was my last day to get my master finished, and to start making the mould in preparation for the first cast!

 
 After finishing the detailing on the leaves, I decided to add leaf 'veins' into the face to make it more of an integration between the human and plant aspects. And so here we come to the finished head!


I have to say the acorns are some of my favourite parts.

 
 After finally finishing the master, I built a 'wall' of clay around it leaving a rough 2 inch gap, then covered it in silicone with a catalyst.

 
After covering the master, while waiting for it to set I decided to do a little more work on my gun but unfortunately ran out of time on that before I could do much and needed to go back to mouldmaking but here it is!

 
I've gotten some of the marks put in place on both sides, and I hope to mark into it with a soldering iron.  BUT then back on to the mould making, as the solicone was dry I had enough time to cover the mould in a layer of thick plaster before the end of the session - next session will be time to take the master out the mould and see how its come out.

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Model/Props - Casting and Costume props!

After discussing turning my master into a prosthetic like mask and casting in silicone, I started working in this session to extend the face down the 'neck' and to continue with the objective of finishing the surface detailing!
 
                                          At end of previous session                     Starting to add more surface detail

Extending to go down the 'neck'
 




I added more acorns as well as the additional different types of leaves for more variety. In order to get the details on the leaves correct I used research images to check the patterning.
 
Adding more detail to the surface using a silicone modeling tool. I find this gives a smoother line.





 
All but two of the leaves now have their surface details, and next session I will be covering the master in silicone and forming the mould, which I hope to cast in both silicone and fibre glass.

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Models/Props - Moulding and Casting!

In the latest session of model and props making, we have started on casting and moulding. I have done a little of this before but not like this! We started by learning a little about the various methods and materials used and the pros and cons of them before starting to discuss and decide what we wanted to form in this and the following session.

I had initially thought to make something that was specifically intended as a prop but was inspired by two of the images supplied by the tutor as they were masks, but incredibly intricately formed which gave me the idea to try and make a costume prop mask/headpiece that at the moment I am debating either turning into a form of prosthetic face OR casting in a thicker silicone and casting a back as well to make it into a puppet head - either of which are possible after seeing some of the examples presented by the tutor! What I found so inspiring about the two images were how much they reminded me of an early idea I had for the fairies from the 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' production that I designed for last year. Now over a year on with more experience and a unique opportunity to explore this option I decided to go for it!

 
But back to the session - the first step was to create the master to cast. Using the two images (above) as inspiration was a good starting point but I wanted to make this a design all my own. The first task was to create face! This needed to be effectively the front half of the head, and considering the size and materials I used blue foam to mass out a large section of the centre, building onto it with ceramic clay. With the exception of vac forming during moving tides and prototyping for Breathe, the last time I used ceramic clay was for my A Level ceramics course and it was a lovely opportunity to use it again as it has always been a medium I have enjoyed.




Once I had formed the head, making sure that  proportionally it was correct, it was time to add surface detail. I decided that instead of taking a while to try and sketch out in detail what I wanted to do, I would treat my first try as an experiment and go with what I felt looked the best - and with that in mind I decided to make him an Oberon inspired mask/puppet and use the more masculine lines of vines and oak and ivy leaves with acorns amongst them.



 
Being that Oberon is the King of the fairies and has power over nature, I felt that mixing the leaves on the same vines was fitting as he governs all and so visually could be less restricted by the logical. The building of a master can take a surprisingly long time, and by the end of the session I was just getting to the point of adding the finer surface detail. Next session I will get my surface details added and extend the design downward, then get on to casting!