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.
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