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Two Molds
July 29th, 2012 | Posted in Mold tutorials | 
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Two Molds
Hi all,
If you’re into making molds and want to see a little about two of my new sculpture molds, continue reading this blog post…..
I’ve been missing writing on my blog! Glad to be back and sharing what I’m up to lately. BTW- Sometimes when I get really busy, I’ll find myself posting on my Facebook page rather than here on my blog. So if you click “like” on my Facebook page, you’ll get all my updates. For instance, here’s a recent album about my Orland Art show reception on Facebook.
My pregnancy sculpt received a lot of attention at the show, some expressing interest in her for OB/Gyn offices. Another inquiry came from a local hospital with a new pregnancy wing opening. The pregnant model for my sculpture actually had her baby at that hospital, although not in the new wing as it wasn’t completed at that point. It won’t open until September 2012. Sure would be neat, I think, to have Kristy’s Blossom in the hospital where the sculpture’s unborn little girl was born. In the past, I’ve had other interest in the sculpt as well, but couldn’t possibly sell her as she was given to my nephew and his wife (the model). Therefore, I decided to make a mold of her and go into bronze.
Rather than using the finished ceramic sculpture as a maquette and making a new one, I decided to make a mold of the original. Capturing the same energy by recreating it in clay would have been difficult. To me, she’s just fine, although not perfect, she has all the elements that make me happy and I don’t need her anatomy showing perfect muscle, fat and bone structure.
First challenge: The petals of the flower she’s sitting on curl quite a bit. How would I be able to get the mold rubber to release? Ended up bulking out the petals quite a bit on the underneath side with oil based clay.
Pregnancy sculpture ready for molding.
Another challenge was the undercut below her belly. I had to bring her pants in the crotch area forward some and bulk out the petal and stem area of the small flower she’s holding. The mold released from this okay but my foundry tells me they will pour wax in the flower and stem separately and attach this to the full wax cast (otherwise the flower might break off when demolding). When pouring the full mold with wax, they’ll have oil based clay pressed in the small flower and stem so that no wax will go into it at that time. Then they’ll pour the flower/stem and attach.
Before starting the mold for Kristie’s Blossom, I started the mold of my small Beautiful Dreamer. The original mold was made by my foundry and got ruined, in part, due to the lady’s feet being included in the mold. They should have been cast separately which is what I did with this new mold. Also, I cut off her arm at the shoulder and cast that separately as well.
Small Dreamer sculpture ready for molding.
Texture of dress is now random rather than uniform.
Her dress used to have a fine pressed fabric texture that could not be reproduced if (or I should say “when” ) there was an imperfection in the metal. With this new random texture, it makes life easier for my foundry because they can reproduce when needed with metal tools.
Sculpture mold parts with pour spouts ready to mold.
This little sculpture, the small Beautiful Dreamer, now has 7 molds! Here’s the list: Left hand, right hand, picture frame (aforementioned molds were in tact and okay so I didn’t have to make new molds of them), left arm, chaise leg, lady’s feet, and main sculpture. Poor foundry man that has a lot of metal chasing! The foundry cost for cast, finish and patina is only $200 less than the large Dreamer because she is the same amount of work but just a little less metal. I’m still glad that I worked hard to save this small size because she was my first bronze and holds a special place in my heart. Also, some people like miniatures, small treasures, I know I do!
1st coat of silicone rubber being blown in.
2nd coat of rubber; brushing in under dress ruffle.
Finished mold in light blue next to damaged mold.
You can see the damaged mold of the small Beautiful Dreamer above where the feet have ripped out of it! Hopefully my mold endures the tests of time and the rigors of foundry men pulling out wax casts (kind of like giving birth- be gentle please!).
Two molds ready for foundry.
Brought my two finished molds to the foundry. Finally got a chance to talk to the mold lady there and get some pointers on mold making. She said out of all her 30 years at the foundry, my molds rank up with maybe one other artist that made their own molds. A-1, “Beautiful,” and thumbs up she gave me. I felt so glad to hear that! I’ll share those mold tips on my next post. Edit: Finished Kristy’s Blossom bronze photos on this blog post.
Here’s a random pic of a sculpture that I liked seeing in Grassvalley, Ca. Pretty cool, huh? It’s a very big sculpture.
Travel photo: “The Gentle Giant,” by Todd Andrews. Clidesdale pulling a load of logs.
Thanks for your patience in following my blog and my not having posts for so long. I stand by my motto of not posting unless I really have something to share that’s informative or newsworthy on some level. We live in a world where people are bombarded with a glut of info on this information highway we call the internet. Just don’t want to bother you all unless I have some real stuff worth your time to view! Hope to see you on my Facebook page too!
~Tamara
8 Responses to “Two Molds”
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Thanks for sharing, Ms. Bonet. I would’ve liked to see more of the mother mold process. I’m sure your bronzes will turn out beautiful!
Thanks. If you want to see mother mold process check out my main mold tutorial here: http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2009/07/24/sculpture-mold-tutorial-of-wealth-sculpture/#more-326
Thanks for sharing your mold-making expertise! I’ve never seen silicon sprayed on like that – did you have your parting lines already built in (which is what I’d expect)? What are you using to make your parting lines? Wish I was better at mold-making. That’s a real frustration for me. Part of it is that I don’t want to take a chance on messing up a sculpture – I’ve done that before and don’t EVER want to go there again! And part of it’s just lack of training – I don’t “see” where the parting lines should go as well as I should, although I think I’m better at it now. I should make something I don’t care that much about and try to make a mold on it to see how I do. Any mold-making expertise you care to share will be quite appreciated! Thanks for your always interesting blog!
Thank you for commenting Lynda.
After brushing on the silicone then I blow it with air (not spraying silicone on) into all the crevices and across the surface so as to remove air bubbles and get the rubber everywhere it needs to be.
Parting lines are added after maybe 6 coats of rubber so that the rubber is thick enough to not pull up with the pressure of the parting wall on it. I used oil based clay for the parting walls and t-pins to hold in place. (See Wealth mold tutorial link on prior post).
One thing that really helped me was viewing professional molds. If you were closer to your foundry then you could learn so much by looking at the mold. Maybe they could take pics of it for you?
I have some of my foundry’s molds, and watched them work in the mold department whenever I’ve been out there. They cut waxed paper soft drink cups into strips to be parting lines – seriously. You can by sheets of buttons from sculpture supply places (I’ve used them myself). They make their parting lines before they start the mold-making process, if I recall correctly, and make fins of rubber along the parting line (the strips of paper cup with buttons attached) that come up into the parting line section of each mother mold piece – the pieces are bolted together and the big ones might have rebar in the plaster/fiberglass for support, which makes a handy handle at times. Some pieces are cut apart to make a good production mold. I suppose if you’re doing it for yourself (like the sculptor on WC who did the hare), you can make it without cutting it apart by taking your time making the mold and pulling it off the model, etc.
Thanks for explaining about blowing air on the silicon – I’ve never needed to do that with my one-piece relief molds. I pour the material into the corner of the mold box and the material pushes the air ahead of it so no bubbles form – so they told me in my mold-making workshop at Syn-Air in Chattanooga years ago, anyway (Syn-Air is part of Puma now, IIRC). Even with reliefs, I’m careful about undercuts, etc.
Paper cups for parting lines, huh
I’ve seen my foundry use a individual cards from a deck of cards all along the partition line. I guess it depends on what type of process is needed. It was for a large mold that they used the cards. For a small to midrange mold, what I’ve seen my foundry do is just what I do, not begin the parting line until several coats of rubber encompass the whole piece. Then, when demolding, use a razor to cut those layers of rubber. Makes for tight seam lines that show little on highly detailed sculpts.
Good idea to pour in corner to push air out for that type of mold process. Tips like that are good to know.
Thanks for writing Lynda!
(bowing) Always happy to be of service, ma’am! LOL
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