Frank

So I've been working on this new piece for an upcoming art show in Vancouver. The show is the annual toy show at the Fall Gallery. The theme is Evil/Naughty show. So after thinking it over and deciding that violence isn't my thing. As much as I want to do a great female nude I just don't think I have the time to finish one before the deadline(working on it just in case). So I've decide on doing playful evil. It's just a simple platform figure like a munny or dunny and I'm hoping to somehow get people interested in using it. The shape is sorta a guy with large arms and large forehead and resembles a frankenstien monster. I'm thinking he could be used to paint up monsters, tough guys, big dumb guys and such. Don't know why I just described it as I'll be posting an image of him with this entry. So I finished him a few days ago but of course the plan is to make many of these guy so I had to make a mold for casting. SO... away we go with the mold making process.

I love this process. It's so hands on and messy but in a good way. There are lots of tools and chemicals, ahh, chemicals. It's like a mad scientist meets art process. Which is perfect considering I've named the platform Frank. So as I said, I finished up the original a few days ago and began the process. The first day I built up my clay(oil-based although water might be better for this process) around Frank and created what would be the shape of my 1st half of the flexible mold. I was able to get as far as creating the 1st half of the mother mold of which I used plain old artist grade plaster. After a few hours it set and I wanted to continue but my wife (the voice of reason) told me to wait. I have a habit of jumping ahead when I work. Just too impatient to wait the proper amount of time. The plaster sets in 30 mins but needs 24 hours to fully cure. That's just too long. And besides, at this point all I really have to do is turn the piece over and remove excess clay and sculpt the 2nd half of the flexible mold in clay. Nothing that will harm the mother mold in the least. I prepared that so that I could just wake up and pour the 2nd plaster mother mold. Day two I wake up and pour the 2nd half of the plaster mother mold. Again the voice of reason comes in and says wait. This time I listen as I have to apply some effort to split the two halves apart. Day 3 and I'm dying to split the thing open. I do, everything looks good and then I begin to refine one half of the clay that represents the inner flexible mold.

The other half is left empty as this will be the first pour of silicone. After a couple hours I'm ready and pull out my Oomoo. Oomoo is a 2 part silicone rubber I bought from Smooth-On. Anyways, I open part B, and stir it for about 10 minutes as it's sat for over 4 years since I bought it. I think you know where this is going. I open part A and $#@!!!

It's nothing but a block of pink rubber. So I head on down to the art store and no silicone. They suggest the Seattle Pottery Supply store. I then go pic up the wife and we head to see our doctor for our 3rd checkup. We get to hear the baby's heart beat and schedule the ultrasound in which we find out the gender. Dec 18th. YAY. Not that it matters, but I will finally be able to use a name on the little one and it's that much more real. But I digress. After the appointment I head to the store which has got to be the coolest store ever. I buy my silicone, get home asap, and pour my 1st half of flexible mold. And wait. It's now day 4 and I just got finished splitting the mother mold open and removing the remaining clay. I cleaned up Frank and fixed a couple minor cracks. Cleaned up the pieces, applied release agent on everything, put it all back together and poured the 2nd half. So now I'm waiting for the 2nd half to cure so I can break this open and get the original out and start making casts. Phew. But how I do love this process.