removing agador

Last night, I gently pried and chiseled until I could remove the back half of agador’s plaster mold. He left arm came with it. then I tried to remove the front half of the mold, but it was just not letting go. Damn undercuts! Finally, I pulled Agador out of the mold by his head and legs, leaving him in a weird position and completely emasculated (oops!). This mold won’t be useful for much, but I may try to do a clay press mold. Next week: Jim molded with rubber!

plaster flinging

This week I spent all my time cleaning up the half of the mold I did, then applying the 2nd half. I have a picture of me flinging wet plaster at Agador’s front, and a picture of my boots afterwards. The rest of the class molded each other’s faces with alginate. Here’s Steve undergoing the process.

Plus, as of today, many photo albums now have thumbnails instead of a list. Yay! Oh, and there’s now a main album list of all art photo albums.

Bright pieces of aluminum

Last night was quite adventurous. Steve suggested that I begin my mold-making experience by experimenting with plaster molds instead of beginning with rubber. He’d done some research and found that rubber is quite expensive. If I can learn a lot about the mold-making process on plaster, which is included in the class, then I’ll be better off. He’s right. Here’re some photos of the process from last night:

• Putting shims cut from soda cans around the center line (this after adding a base, moving his left arm around to his back, and cleaning up some other little things).
• Three shots of the sculpture with all the shims (and some water-based clay plugs) in him: From the front, from the side, from the back.
• Then I mixed plaster and spattered (flinging) at the back of the sculpture, building up a thick wall of plaster along only his back. Again from the front, from the side, from the back.

Guinea pig sculpture

Last night I spent a few hours throwing this cute little guy together. I didn’t use a model or anything, just sculpted from what’s in my head … kind of a new experience. Fun! You can see two views of him, front here and side here. So, I will use this sculpture next week as an experiment as I begin learning how to cast. He may get destroyed in the process. I hope to start out by making a rubber mold of him. Whupee!

hosting donations

My new hosting provider, Dreamhost, provides a service whereby visitors to my website can contribute directly to my hosting bill. If you’d like to donate a dollar or two or 10, you can do so by clicking here and following the instructions. Thanks!

lifecasting number 1

Last night was the first of 10 meetings of a class called ‘Lifecasting.’ The two instructors talked to us 6 students a lot (even telling us some horror stories about what foolish things students had tried to do in the past; one girl tried to cast her crotch by just pouring wet plaster onto her lap. When it started to set and heat up, she panicked, but as she hadn’t shaved or used plastic, there was no getting it off in a hurry.) Then we watched Anita cast Steve’s hands. Before next week, I’ll make a rudimentary plastilene sculpture that I can practice molding on.

commissions

I’ve added a new section to the site, highlighting pieces I’ve done on commission. Not all of my commissioned pieces are here, mind you. Just the ones I have web-ready photos for. There are a few more pieces in progress now, which I will of course add when they are done.

Revisiting the Standing Man

This is one of the sculptures that I made quite a while ago. Only recently did I have photos taken of him. He is the 2nd plastilene sculpture that I made. The first was a water-based clay rendering of a woman lying down on rocks. She has not yet had her picture taken. This is the standing man. He’s about 24 inches tall, like the others. He’s been hanging around in the garage so long that he’s begun to mold. I need to get him casted soon!

New host

Now hosted by Dreamhost.