Masks and other Art

[Buster's Uncle]

I have a project that's waited about 20 years for me to get around to finishing it - a Ken statue.  It needs a base contrived, and a head.

Guess where this is going. 



-This isn't actually a Ken, but a cheap knockoff that hits the style pretty well.

I've heard plasticine can ruin the curing of silicone, so I filled in all the joints and seams -improving the anatomy somewhat- with sculpey, which blends in amazingly well with the color of the torso plastic.  Poor focus doesn't help bring out the detail, either, but you may be able to guess what the shoulder joints were like, given the wrist and elbows.  Spent about an hour fixing up.


So I'm not planning candles or plaster busts, once again other than a test one, but went ahead and make a wick hole in the top and enclosed the upper shoulders just in case - not a lot of extra work at the seam/joint-hiding stage, and none in the mold-making.  I decided not to bother with the flat top - I never get the angle exactly level, and setting on a wad of foil for casting ends up being less work.

Went with purple this time.  What the heck.



-Will keep you posted...

[Buster's Uncle]

Well this one borked pretty badly - I didn't press in around the neck sufficiently and got three major gap/wrinkles, especially under the chin.  -Also, I pulled it out too soon, and had to rebuild the tip of the nose.


I spent an hour of handwork fixing on it, and need to wait for it to dry to finish the nose.

I'm casting another and letting it set properly - I'll decide about trying to fix the mold flaws tomorrow...

[Buster's Uncle]

...And none of the silicone II molds have cured yet...

[Buster's Uncle]

I was mistaken.  The statue does have a head.


-Though not, IMAO, as good a head...



Of course I glued the legs back together before I went to bed.

I'll paint a little plaster over the cracks, and it'll never show.  Bits of him have been glued a lot of times, to the point the discolorations are going to need whitewashing before he's done.

[Geo]

I was mistaken.  The statue does have a head.


-Though not, IMAO, as good a head...

Almost one of those old Greek statues, showing wear and stuff.

[Buster's Uncle]

That's the idea, yes.  It's a pity the details don't show better.  I'm going to only cast one hand and leave the other arm broken off at, at least, the wrist...

[Rusty Edge]

This is impressive.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, Mattel did a lot of the work.  I just filled in the joints and improved the anatomy.

-I gotta get a pic of his butt...

[Buster's Uncle]

Here's the bust unaltered out of the mold...



There appears to be a flaw over the nose, too, that catches and breaks the tip off during demolding.

I think I'll start over with a thin mold seated inside this defective one...

[Buster's Uncle]

That worked out better - but I should have put the calk on the inside of the mold instead of on the not-Ken, where it didn't stay spread evenly as I forced it into the previous mold, indeed leaving some gaps.



There was enough pressure of the old mold wanting to hold the old shape that the new material forced past the sculpey and into the neck joint.  I wasn't able to remove but the worst of it.



This would be easier to handwork to a presentable state, but who wants to put that much time in over and over?  There's extra on top of both shoulders, a dent missing from the front of his left, a fold-gap that sticks out a little on the back of the neck, and irregularities on the hair where there were gaps in the new mold material.  At least the nose came out right.

As you may have deduced from the left side of the first pic, instead of trying to repair the flaws, I started over using what I've learned.  More as it develops...

[Buster's Uncle]

Part of the trick is not to knead the calk too long and get it on and shaped before it begins to set.  -And don't try to add a thick stripe to the back of an already curing mold where you're going to cut a seam, and make a hand mold and both feet.  That takes a little too long.

I was going to have to do a lot of reshaping of the hand and feet for the statue, at least around the wrist and ankles, and I had to squirt a little squirt more to cover numerous problems on the feet with setting up and edges not wanting to blend.  Fingers crossed...

[Buster's Uncle]

I really hope I don't have to mess with this again...

 

This is what I started with.
 

I believe I altered the anatomy of the neck and shoulders significantly enough that I can ethically sell castings as art, not simply craft.

-Note that in the shots of him buffed up at top, with the difference in color between the face and the rest of him, and against the blue background - that's Aquaman.  He's obviously summoning fish to throw off the focus of my camera...

[Buster's Uncle]

[Unorthodox]

That from the caulking mold?

[Buster's Uncle]

Yessir.  Third try got it right.