Sunday, June 19, 2011

Rubber rubber rubber rubber.....

I've Just finished sculpting my latest piece and am in the process of making a mold.



It was so hot during the final stages of sculpting that the clay was like butter - impossible to work with. I had to keep the sculpture in the refrigerator overnight and for long periods in between working. It didn't leave much room for food, but who needs food when you are sculpting?





And...Finished!








Next I started the rubber mold. Because of all the undercuts and internal spaces this is easily the most complicated mold I've ever made.



The blue tint is the first layer of rubber thinned out to pick up detail



Next I changed the color and thickened the rubber for quicker application and started to apply the shim lines




4 comments:

Unknown said...

coooool. what are you using to cast?

Jesse Thompson said...

I used a rubber called Mold Max with a thickener for this project. I might switch to a different one next time around - I was frustrated by the long drying times with this rubber. Even with an accelerant to the catalyst I had to wait almost 6 hours between...

Lane Brown said...

Very cool! Thanks for showing the process. I think the stage with the dripping blue rubber looks very interesting, with the contrasts of color vs gray, and matte vs gloss.

Is that an oil based clay? It sort of looks like the none-drying stuff that I use.

Jesse Thompson said...

Hi Lane, I used Klean Klay for the sculpture. The color is not available everywhere - they sell that particular color grey at the lyme academy in CT.