You wouldn't think that a cut apart rubber Brownie would make me so happy, but this one sure does. It is the goal that I worked all week for. This little rubber donkey is just perfect. The mold that made him is going to allow me to use him and make plaster production molds. His head, his forelegs, and his body will all be seperate molds and then will be attached in the greenware stage. The innovation that you see, which is really a breakthrough from past molds, is that I cut the RUBBER instead of the resin original. Cutting the resin was difficult and tricky, and because the dremel takes away a lot of material, it created castings that have to be given a great deal of extra attention to put back together. However, by cutting the rubber, I was able to get razor blade exactness, and when he is put together, he should fit like those giant stone bricks on a Mayan temple. Or something like that.
I did something else kind of strange. I poured him through his forehead!! Yikes! Well, I had a good reason to do so. You see, the ultimate goal was to pour the castings through the neck of the body, but I couldn't arrange that until the head was off. I couldn't cut the head off until I had a rubber casting. I couldn't get a rubber casting until I had a pour hole to pour the rubber through. So, I though to myself... "where can I put the pour hole that I can later re-pour right against the original, and not have a scar where the pour hole was?" Then it came to me... I could pour plaster right against his head! It should release just fine, because of the way the piece is engineered, and I can use the rubber head for the rest of the plaster pours. That is the best of both worlds. So, let's hope it works.
Aardvark Clay isn't open until tomorrow, they took the whole week off, so I will need to go up there for plaster before I can make the production molds. When the molds are made, I will then post an article on exactly how the mold was made, start to finish, because only when you see what I wanted to accomplish, can you understand the decisions I made. He is now a pretty straightforward mold to make, so thank goodness... there will be nice warm Brownies in 2009!
Joanie
6 comments:
Ah, warm Brownies---I'll take two please! With my new passion: a New Zealand flat white coffee.
Mmmm sounds good. What's a flat white coffee?
I have Pirate music on in the background, a clean house, a full tummy, and am sitting here thinking about shiny donkeys. Boy oh boy, life doesn't get much better. :-)
Clever, clever! Can't wait to see them out of the oven! Enjoy your happy shiny dreams.
:)
he sure is cute! I have one question.if you make the pour hole on his forehead? how will you redo the detail that was there? or am I picturing it wrong? I have been reading you and leslies blogs trying to learn as much as I can. I rally want to get a kiln someday soon and learn to do my own molds..in the meantime I have one of my medallions Id love for one of you guys to produce for me if your interested? its my Antico Friesian medallion thats sold out...( its on my blog from last summer).. I would have to fix a few things like 2 deep undercuts but Id love to know if it can be done and if your interested.. I'll be watching this for the brownie mold making tutorial!
Rebecca Turner
www.solticeartstudio.blogspot.com
It's a latte from down under! The coffee and milk are steamed together and poured in a large shallow cup---something like a french latte bowl---while still frothy. The liquid settles and the froth flattens on the top. It is a very creamy, soothing drink, like hot cocoa, but with coffee!
Becky, I am going to use the original resin to pour the plaster piece that forms the forehead, and then use the rubber head to pour the rest of the plaster. At least, that is the plan.
The backup plan is (now that I have a good rubber master) to re-pour the rubber head without the pour hole, and use that to make the head mold. It's such a new technique, that I am making it up as I go along.:-) Send me a photo of your medallion to: mold40 (at) roadrunner (dot) com and I will see if I can help you.
Mel, that coffee sounds divine. Joanie
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