This is my third cast, and tinted to be most like the original shown beside it above. I have a plan for this one: I think it will find a home soon. It may get mounted on a print background in the wooden tray at left, but I am not quite sure yet about that part. I think that print is too busy and too distracting.
Category Archives: Sculpture
Moon Snail Cast
These are the first resin moon snail casts from my Moon Snail limestone carving, so I am excited!
How I did the Colors:
I experimented with brushing in powdered pigment, in addition to adding pigment to the resin. This fast cure polyurethane resin is bright opaque white, so I added a little pigment to make a light warm grey throughout the first cast, and a lighter off-white on the second cast.
Brushing color into the mold is always an experiment, as you cannot see in advance how much color is collected by rougher surfaces of the mold, etc. I tried for a light touch with highlights, which is more difficult than a full surface coverage.
I was not satisfied with the results, which were too patchy and high contrast, so I brushed & rubbed additional colored powders directly onto both casts until I liked the result better. I used a clear matte acrylic spray to fix the color. This surface color is thin & susceptible to scratches, but then that’s art for you 🙂
Limiting the Edition:
I have offered the first one to a friend who may want to buy it. Her price is based on my rough estimate for the cost of materials… and this price is for friends only! But she may prefer to hold out for another material or different coloring. I do plan a few more casts, but will limit the number. Not sure about the size of the edition, but under 25, I think.
More Molds
Preparing to cast my carved limestone MoonSnail. I think this mold is better, but I should reinforce the rigid mothermold: it is too thin on the sides! I have even remember to measure the volume I will need (3 cups) today, so the mold will be really dry tomorrow. I do plan to experiment a bit though: I can’t resist. I will mix two fillers plus pigment in my clear two part epoxy resin, and see what happens. I am hoping it will be opaque, or almost, and a bit stronger (due to chopped carbon fibers as one of the fillers).
Resin Ruins
I have managed to drag success, kicking and screaming, from potential disaster:
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- Photo of resin cast
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- Photo 2 of same resin cast
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- Resin cast scanned
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- Original carved stone
This is art as a technical challenge: I made a really bad silicone mold of my carving Bluestone Ruins, ruining a layer of silicone with the wrong pigment, then running out of material. But I was able to salvage it sufficiently for this resin cast, and I may be able to get 1 or even 2 more from this very problematic mold.
This “Blue Ruins” cast has two layers of tinted resin. The upper layer is more translucent, but both let some light through. I won’t back light it, since the fiber and a sheet of mesh in the bottom layer would show up too much. However there is a subtle effect from light around the edges in the right light.
Note the effects of lighting: the first 3 images are the dark translucent resin cast under different light. In the 3rd image there is an optical illusion created by the scanner lighting. The relief appears reversed, with all the “outs” appearing to be “ins” :-). I have added a hanger & protective piece of acrylic to the back, so the piece hangs well now. It would definitely benefit from careful lighting however.
I certainly hope I do a much better job with my Moon Snail mold, coming next: the materials are on order.
And Today
Watching Me
Art Sale
Blue Ruins
Bluestone Paver
Doing a bit of freehand “drawing” in stone. Started with the chisel, but this is hard, hard stuff! So got out the power tool of choice: a “Eurotool Flexible shaft machine” which takes all the usual 1/8″ bits. I have to change a few things, spend many hours refining & finishing, and expect to practice some polishing technique on this one.
Oh, and while I am at it, let me foil it:
