Made by Nick Clarke
I have been making things most of my life from boats to houses. I had a cabinet business for many years. I thrive on creating. The Sea Horse (3′ tall) is my third attempt. I have an octopus (about 2′ long) in process and plan to make a three quarter relief LeafySeaDragon (3′ x 3′). I want to make a mold of it so I can make replicas. Do you have any recommendations for that process?
Love this! Well done!
Thank you all for your comments. I have been considering the undercut problem. I think I have a solution. I’ll let you know if it is successful.
BTW I started in May of this year and have made ten different sculptures. This is really fun. Lots of work but fun nonetheless.
Best wishes
It’s beautiful, Nick. Are you using an air brush to get that nice color shading? I’m totally impressed. 🙂
I like using Rebound 25 for molds. It’s a brushable silicone material, so you also need a stiff backing. I use plaster cloth for the backing. I’ve used it for my “instant paper mache” made with paper and plaster, reinforced with cheesecloth, but that might be too heavy for your sculptures. It is possible to use paper strips and paste in silicone molds, too, but it takes a long time. Have you considered making resin castings?
Do you have a video on mold making?
Hi Rone. I have several. There’s this one, for small molds used for plaster or cement castings. And this one for use with plaster cloth. And we have a guest post for using plaster molds with paper mache.
I hope one of them will help you with your next project. 🙂
It is a beautiful project. That said, making molds with so many undercuts would be difficult. I myself am trying to “invent” such a process and although I have a background in sculpture (involving many products) mold making with undercuts usually involves silicone modes. You can cast it in silicone but can not use paper mache to produce copies (unless you can figure out how). Because the silicone does not breathe, (no pores to allow escape of water)… the paper mache would not dry.
You might try half molds – and let it air dry. I am experimenting on very simple such molds but have not finished yet. My projects only involve half rounds – I want to reproduce glossy 1/2 rounds using plaster casts and paper mush. (I can not use synthetic chemicals such as high gloss varnishes)
These are flexible for such projects. Otherwise the old fashioned way with plaster molds would be almost a nightmare. For this project it would involve many parts.