Sunday 4 October 2009

MASS PAPER MACHE ARMATURE PRODUCTION USING PLASTER MOLDS PART 3

Now the dolphin armature has been painted up with Dragon Skin as a 3D paint creating the dolphin features as i worked. It's fully dry & has now been varnished. To varnish it as smoothly as i could giving the final finish as close to a natural dolphin skin finish as possible i used a method i named many, many years ago for no other reason as for my own amusement 'Dip n Drip' method. I simply dipped the head & around one third of the torso into the tin of varnish then stood the armature upright so the extra varnish coating it could simply find it's own way down the rest of the armature & drip off.

I did it this way so i could get a good thick coating of varnish on in a single run, but also completely remove ANY chances of brush strokes in the varnish too. It's messy. It takes a little longer to dry fuly, but i think the final finish could simply not be any smoother no matter what brush i used. Here are some pictures of the varnished state. The varnish is dry enough for me to hold it gently to photograph but i will be leaving it to fuly dry another few days yet.

In all but the last picture shown here i have angled the dolphin so the light would not catch the varnish allowing for a clear picture to be taken. I allowed the light to catch the varnished surface in the last picture how ever to show the varnish is on there.















Once this is cast in plaster (split mold) i can then get to making multiple copies in paper mache. I will be using strips not pulp. More on that when the time comes.

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2 comments:

  1. Georgina4 October 2009 at 18:24

    Hey Jonty,

    Molds are my most unfavorable things to make!! When at university, we had to learn how to make them in ceramic class and I took something very simple, or so I thought, and it turned out to be a 4 piece mold....AAAAHHHHH!!! But a 2 piece is quite easy, but still hate the process...love the results though. Don't know what I did with that 4 piece mold, probably threw it away since I spent many hours making it. I'll leave the process to my buddy, the Plaster Master...I'm the Plaster Disaster!!!

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  2. Jonty5 October 2009 at 11:32

    Plaster molding or plaster casting can be tricky if you choose something with lots of angles & raised detailing to copy i agree. Whilst making molds is something i can do i much prefer simply foil copying to plaster casting myself.

    Foil copying how ever won't give me/you the much more detailed fine forms that plaster or even rubber castinng will. This is why my dolphin i am going to copy is being done this way. As much as i prefer foil copying a split plaster cast mold will give me a much higher detailed copy allow faster drying times & produce copies that should be as near as perfect & 100% identical everytime which is what i need here.

    One day (& i mean one day in some far off distant future lol) i would love to push myself & try a three or four part plaster casting. For no other reason other than seeing just what i can or can't do lol.

    For here & now this will do for me to achieve what i need & help to teach & inspire others to try it at least lol.

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