New technique - stone molds
Here are the first somewhat-acceptable casts I have made using soapstone and slate molds.
Last summer I tried to make a casting of a crow in silhouette. I made a good positive in plasticine and painted it over with silicone as I do with my other molds, but I never got it to pour correctly because the rubber would flex when I clamped it, leaving me with a hole in the middle. I thought that with slate molds I would be able to make much thinner and more detailed castings, like the old "flat" tin soldiers one used to be able to get from Germany. It would also make for lighter castings, and allow my metal to go further!
So, these are just experiments... the slate I got from Tile Town, I walked in there asking for any broken pieces of slate they might have, but when I explained what I wanted it for, the lady gave me two good 12x12" ones and said, "no charge". She was either an artisan herself or just wanted me out of the store; probably the latter. The soapstone I got from Opus because they are having a sale right now, but Tim told me the Rockhound shop has bigger pieces for cheaper. In both cases the stone is carved with a Dremel tool, though I also used some old dentist's tools I had for cleaning up lines etc. The hardest work is sawing the stone into smaller slabs and sanding it down flat.
The left one is a lighter, thinner version of the Neubauten man pin I've been making for a while, the centre is an imitation of an Athenian coin featuring an owl, and the right one is a prototype of a "challenge coin" I am making for the staff of the Black Rock Beacon (it's a lighthouse, see) this summer. (Speaking of which, I think my tickets for Burning Man have finally arrived!)
Last summer I tried to make a casting of a crow in silhouette. I made a good positive in plasticine and painted it over with silicone as I do with my other molds, but I never got it to pour correctly because the rubber would flex when I clamped it, leaving me with a hole in the middle. I thought that with slate molds I would be able to make much thinner and more detailed castings, like the old "flat" tin soldiers one used to be able to get from Germany. It would also make for lighter castings, and allow my metal to go further!
So, these are just experiments... the slate I got from Tile Town, I walked in there asking for any broken pieces of slate they might have, but when I explained what I wanted it for, the lady gave me two good 12x12" ones and said, "no charge". She was either an artisan herself or just wanted me out of the store; probably the latter. The soapstone I got from Opus because they are having a sale right now, but Tim told me the Rockhound shop has bigger pieces for cheaper. In both cases the stone is carved with a Dremel tool, though I also used some old dentist's tools I had for cleaning up lines etc. The hardest work is sawing the stone into smaller slabs and sanding it down flat.
The left one is a lighter, thinner version of the Neubauten man pin I've been making for a while, the centre is an imitation of an Athenian coin featuring an owl, and the right one is a prototype of a "challenge coin" I am making for the staff of the Black Rock Beacon (it's a lighthouse, see) this summer. (Speaking of which, I think my tickets for Burning Man have finally arrived!)