Stephani Stephenson on sun 1 apr 01
Marie:
Have you considered slip casting? Not to discourage you from the
silicone / latex experiment, but slip cast pieces from a plaster mold
pick up detail quite well. The time you spend figuring out how to
design and construct the mold may pay off later in the process,
I did a custom project a few years back. I made lfesize clay babies for
a group of indie film makers who needed realistic clay babies that could
grow chia hair! (by the way this was in Montana not California!) I
tried it both ways, using press molds and also slip cast molds.
fitting the arms and legs separately.
The comfort of the press molds was that I could use a clay I was
familiar with, but slip casting actually gave me better results.
I have never used silicone but I have used latex. The difficulty with
latex is that it gives slightly when pressed, with a tendency to soften
detail, even when it is in a plaster bed.
There is an interesting product out there called 'mannequin rubber',
sold by Douglas and Sturgess in the San Francisco area. By the way,
Douglas and Sturgess is a FANTASTIC source of all kinds of fascinating
products., The company caters to the stagecraft industry, but it is
sculptor's heaven. Their catalog is quite informative as well. They
also sell cold finishing materials, moldmaking materials of all kinds
and catalog gives good information on compatible release agents, etc.,
This 'mannequin rubber' is sort of like 'husky' latex. It releases and
behaves like latex, but is quicker and easier to use. It has more oomph
to it. You can put it on thicker and it is somewhat opaque. It can be
used as a finished product, i.e. it will eventually stiffen and takes
paint beautifully, and I have found it useful as a worry free mold
material. The fact that it stiffens over time is even better, though it
always maintains some flexibility. I recently used it as a mold material
for a large relief plaque/ tile that required raised lettering. I didn't
want to deal with ALL the minute undercuts which would doom a plaster
mold process, so I made the mold out of this mannequin rubber, then
plaster backing that up. The mannequin rubber is stiffer than latex, so
it worked well with the pressing. After the piece was pressed I turned
out the clay product with the mannequin rubber/latex jacket still on it,
then gently peeled off the jacket, put it back in the plaster bed and
did it again. Made eight of them and saw no deterioration of jacket.
made the mold about 3/4 inch thick, making sure that the high points ,
or the thinnest parts of the mold were that thick. Not sure this would
work for your particular project , each project varies,but may be of
use in future.
Finally, with regard to pressing larger pieces. Over the last couple of
years I have found that , to maintain detail on larger areas, a
technique whereby you repeatedly press overlapping wads of clay into
the mold with the thumb, sometimes works better than laying in a slab.
the clay needs to be moist . I also use different shaped tamping tools
on very large pieces. It is hard to describe in words, easier to show
with the hands. Each shape / piece seems to require its own variation on
method.
best wishes on your project!
sincerely
Stephani Stephenson
Leucadia CA
http://home.earthlink.net/~mudmistress/
http://www.alchemiestudio.com
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