Masks and other Art

[Buster's Uncle]

Looks funny because of the foamy surface I sometimes get -caused by the scent I add?- and a cursory polishing that didn't get into the recesses, but it's a good cast.

[Buster's Uncle]

[Buster's Uncle]

I was planning to do building group shots as I cast Ponytail Barbies in new colors - but I was told at lunch to label some for Mylochka to take over to the gallery - so the red and stone girls above are gone, along with over a third of the piano line-up.

But here:

Despite the face photographing poorly, a good cast.  Green's always the one that photographs best of a set...

[Buster's Uncle]

These may amount to something yet, given another three weeks or a month.

They're very lowly firming up.




-But Momma finally expressed impatience with her shoe press mold today, so while she was microwaving leftover burgers for supper, I did this:

-and it was firm enough -in my opinion and if you're in a real hurry- by the time we finished eating.  This is shown approximately life-size, a little smaller than my palm, roughly a squirt and a half of putty.  More pics to come if they work out, and they should, as she does something with them...

[Buster's Uncle]

Buster's Daddy's tree branch chair that I did the rope seat on is reportedly gone from the sto', BTW, though he hasn't been informed or paid yet, we assume it's been bought.

[Buster's Uncle]

Some black Sculpey smoothed into the new press mold -the stuff's too fragile for the soles part to work, and I told her so, but just as well try- and Momma's currently testing the ability of a fresh putty mold to take 275 for 20 minutes.

[Buster's Uncle]

Something strange happened.  Momma heard funny creaking when she opened the toaster oven doors, and the sculpey pieces popped explosively out of the mold in two at her.  One was broken across the sole, and other the heal off.  She's glued them back together and is planning to let the mold sit at least overnight until she feels like arting tomorrow.

-I figure it was just too soon in the curing to bake the silicone and there was vapor release building pressure under the casts until she jostled it opening the door - she said the vinegar smell was stronger than the smell of baking sculpey when she opened the oven.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm going to hold off until the latex cast is ready -hopefully tomorrow morning as soon as I'm awake enough to feel like it- until I cast the green and am done for the moment with this figure.  I need to do a test of that mold...

[Buster's Uncle]

Just done:

Orange baby Buster has a nose now.

[Buster's Uncle]

Momma really likes the direction this repair effort is going.



Very small amounts of the calk, as needed for the patching, are difficult to mix and handle, so I did a whole squirt and colored -actually adding half yellow mistaken for orange the first time- and put most of it inside the pink second try, which had some very thin spots inside, and built up the bottom -where it'll be inside the stuffed body- below the gather ring at the base of the neck.  Momma thought that was a goof idea when I showed her.  -Then I'd pinch off tiny bits for the calking over leprous-looking depressions on the other, especially around the face.  I spread excess around somewhat, which had a felicitous effect that doesn't show in pics as much as RL, that the subtle irregularity of color breaks up one of the glaring tells that it's a fake thing; real live skin isn't one color.



Note that orange Buster also has been built up under the gather ring, only in clear putty that doesn't show well against the plastic surface it's sitting on...

Then I went back an hour later and made better ears using the pink of the second try by design because that'll make proper highlights when I try smoothing out irregularities and correcting skin tone to be not-orange with a few coats of latex.

Dunno how well that will stick to the silicone, but no harm in trying.  Momma suggests we make the hair part of the head out of the same silicone putty; rather in the style of the baby dolls of her day, where the hair was built in.



I think I've got orange Buster in better shape than pink second-try Buster now, and I'm eager to get it really nice and ready to be an adorable baby doll, but I'm going to give it a few hours to cure more before I start coating...

[Buster's Uncle]

The coating went oddly - I have the skin tone latex watered way down/thin, and it beaded on the surface.  I resorted to a very thin layer of clear, because it's not cut with water and too thick to bead, even mixed in with the colored.

-Then during cat time, it hit me that I should try to do the eyes in silicone --- and this happened:


Hoo ha!  Ignoring that when I picked at an errant fleck of colored putty, it pulled up an edge of the very thin preliminary layer of latex which snowballed from there, and I'll have to pull all that off and start over (and that, yes, Uno will prefer it just as-is, as an evil plague baby) it REALLY makes a difference.

She really did have eyes like that at five days, pale blue, large, widely-and-not-deep-set, and always looking around trying to work out vision and all.  The whites and irises are silicone, and the pupils dots of paint.  When I've put on new upper eyelid rims to cut down on that staring look/bulging, and removed and redone that peeling first layer of latex, it's going to look pretty good.

[Buster's Uncle]

BTW, the pig snoot is ready, I think, when I'm ready for it.

-And I should have the mother mold on the ponytail Barbie latex mold ready by the middle of the day tomorrow, and the last candle for now done by supper.

[Geo]

Not a space suit.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Sorry.

I am considering how to do a faceplate for the helmet of an astronaut Barbie...

[Buster's Uncle]

This is ready.

   

Gonna be a pain to slide out of the substantial, snug, mother it needs to hold the seam shut, though...