Rebirth

Well I've gone back to the little fella and poured a new mold for him. You can see how the plaster is smooth this time, as it should be. Those fluorescent yellow marks bled into the wet plaster from the edge of the milk carton. I'd marked where the edge of the chisel should be placed.

Here he is waiting for the pouring. I'd gone back and fixed him up as best I could and placed him in a new container. As he was so overhandled thus far, I decided not to put him through the ordeal of having toothpicks placed in his head to stand him up away from any surface. So I just layed him down right directly onto the bottom of the milk carton. With the plasticine directly touching the surface of the carton you will see how thin the plaster will be in those parts. I'll live with it. Note the small balls of plasticine with the toothpicks sticking out. They will be the registration device to allow the two parts of the mold to fit together accurately. Before I pour the second half I will remove the balls.

The milk carton has been removed from the hardened two part mold. I'll be placing the edge of the chisel between the two pieces of hardened plaster, roughly in the area where the fluorescent mark is placed.

So I've separated the two pieces and you can see it will be a success. Believe me, there should not be all of those little holes in the mold. They are air bubbles and even though I gently shook the wet freshly poured mold to release air bubbles, I should not have mixed up the plaster and water together so vigorously in the first place, to cause air bubbles to form. I can live with this mold.

I gently dug out the little fella. Here is the two part mold!! Notice the registration bumps that will fit into their own bowl indentation on the opposite half of the mold. This ensures a proper fit, which will be very important later. I'll be telling you why when I actually use the mold. You can also see the three points that were where the plasticine shape touched the edge of the milk carton before the plaster was poured. I'll work around these. Really, the thing I was looking for, is that the eye area and nose and mouth got a good clean image. There is one bubble under the mouth but at least it's not right in the middle. At best it will be just annoying when working with the mold, but I am satisfied with this cast.

If I wanted the mold as perfect as perfect can be, I'd fill the little holes with 'wood-filler' or 'plastic wood' and I've done that in the past to great success but I'll likely not need to do that here. I just thought I'd show you the little fella because when I dug him out of the mold his head came out in one piece so really, I could use this image in plasticine once again. I admire his tenacity. Well I've been thinking a lot lately about companion animals so maybe I'll rework this plasticine into another entity and the little fella might have a companion of some sort. Maybe an archetype. That would be fun.

So I'm going to allow this mold to air dry for a day or two so that it is really really hard. When I use him I'll do a post so you can see what comes of this little fella. He might be a girl, or a boy, or a man or woman or who knows what. It is a surprise to all of us, including me. Thanks for dropping by, and we'll see you soon, I hope. *smiles* Norma

Now about that painting I'm supposed to be doing...