Masks and other Art

[Buster's Uncle]

Well.


If you look real close with your glasses on, you'll see that the seam ridge is not tiny/faint, and there is some troublesome bits on the bottom-left, a little reaching around to the chin.




-Still, I'm gonna try pouring a candle, now...

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmmm.

I only intended to have a faintish tint of brown to the wax...

[Buster's Uncle]

Interesting settling of the pigments I didn't intend.  Mylochka likes the effect, though.

I believe I'll run off a few while the mold lasts...

[Buster's Uncle]

The rough surface texture I'm getting for some reason really hits that emulating weathered pumice-ish rock effect I wanted.


I think I'll pour one more in plain wax to see if it's the mold or the doesn't-want-to-blend-in black oil paint doing it...

[Buster's Uncle]

I decided the moai needed a girlfriend/wanted to test out the new AMP mold:




She does have a face.  There's a flaw under the nose that I think came from inadvertently moving the mold putty around after it began to set.  I had to take a minute to remove it with a thumbnail.

The casting seam from the mold is not pronounced on her back below the hair -took seconds to smooth out to my satisfaction- and doesn't stand out against her hair.



I think the Amazing Mold Putty has its problems, not least that it's way too expensive, but works fairly satisfactorily with a seam in the back and a plaster gauze mother mold...

[Unorthodox]

Wouldn't a latex mold work for wax?

Should be loads cheaper than the mold putty. 

[Buster's Uncle]

The innermost layer starts separating and making problems pretty quickly - I took two weeks making the original latex mold for the Barbie with that hair, and the sixth casting needed serious spot wax-dripping handwork to bring it up to standards.

The drying process destroyed the unbaked sculpey hairdo, so I had to make the new mold off the first casting...

[Buster's Uncle]

Two weeks work preparing and the seventh casting looks like this.


Her face is spread wide, too.  Harder to fix than the blatant flaws...

[Buster's Uncle]

For reasons partly of I hate to waste plaster and I had extra when I poured Mylochka a plaster cast of big hair Barbie and ended up with the top third of the Buster figurine - I decided to make a Buster bust candle.



There's some bubbles and flaws showing, and I also wanted to minimize the deepest indents to make demolding smoother, so I spot-painted plaster in places - and it's 1-1/2 inches tall, so I added a little pedestal by way of setting her on a pill jar lid and painting plaster over that.



She needs a little detailing yet...

[Unorthodox]

What's the wax melting point?

This stuff has been on my radar a while for plaster casts, but might melt too low for your candles. 

http://www.rockler.com/composimold-reusable-mold-making-material?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=(ROI)%20Shopping%20-%20Power%20Tools&utm_term=1100005069599&utm_content=Everything%20Else%20in%20'Power%20Tools'

[Buster's Uncle]

Dunno - it's not all that high, or you'd always get burned when a drip gets on you.

I've seen the stuff before, and the link mentions working for wax - but I have my doubts about being able to keep the wax under 130 degrees, and the stuff's expensive...

[Unorthodox]

Expensive up front, but theoretical 32 uses would more than make up for the cost. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmmm.  If I've got a good mold of a good piece, I'd want to keep it...

[Unorthodox]

Would depend for me.  There's a lot of things I only make 2-5 copies of and will be done with the mold.  (ala the maleficent horns a few years back)

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm y'know, looking to sell these - if I luck out, I'll need more...