A huge sigh of relief about a relief mold! This is wonderful for me: my paperclay bas relief angel triptych survived the mold making and I think I do have a usable silicone mold! The mold should be usable despite my stinginess with the very expensive good quality silicone. Per the manufacturer I should have used at least another 2 lbs of material, but I couldn’t quite convince myself that I needed to do it. The material is expensive, and the containers are throw-away; I feel guilty using it at all.

I feel actual joy at the prospect of continuing to create with these three strange skeletal figures. There will be several new variations using this mold, I hope. I want to create at least one slightly tinted translucent cast of the full piece, but I may also cast the figures separately, to appear alone or with other figures. The possibilities are exciting to consider!

There is plenty of work ahead. I will need to make a box around the silicone, and I may use cheaper silicone from the hardware store to fill and shore up the rough edges, in order to create a slightly larger 24″ x 18″ casting, to match the size of the original. I won’t go into the reason why this mold is a bit smaller, but trust me, that was the only reasonable option! My goal is to be ready to make my first resin cast in a few days.

Next Day Update:

Today I followed a plan to enlarge my mold to a “standard” size of 24″ x 18″, using 100% silicone caulk. First I built a box the size I need, sealed the wood, then placed the artwork mold in position. I filled around the edges of the new mold with silicone caulk, trying to create a compatible surface. It will show as different, but it should be just fine. The silicone will cure in about 24 hours, so I could pour resin as soon as 3pm tomorrow!

With the silicone caulk tube open, I made two more small beetle people molds. That makes progress on two different art fronts today, after a long dry spell!