Mold Making Workshop

Today I attended the first of many workshops I can choose to attend, where we are given an introduction to the studios and media available to us throughout our program.

The studios here are fantastic. In the Scott Building they have massively high ceilings, roomy, lots of natural light, fantastic equipment and materials available. Plus each studio has dedicated technicians who run them and are available to instruct, guide and assist us if we want to use that medium.

And all of the studio I've seen so far are the cleanest, tidiest and most organized I have, hands down, ever been in. I am excited to try them all!

In the short mold making session today we got to cast a few items in pre-made molds using resins that we coloured and/or added things to. I made three coasters - two were dry enough to finish and bring home, but the third was taking way longer to dry due to the colour I added to it. I'll pick it up next week.

Then we got to create our own small molds. We sculpted small items in an oil based clay on a piece of masonite board, damned it with clay, then mixed silicone powder with the wet medium to pour into the mold. Once that silicone is cured it will be a durable reusable mold we can keep. As we didn't have time to wait for the silicone to cure Shirley (the technician) said she will remove them and cast the items for us to pick up later on.

I did a very small relief sculpture of Pippa's face (the family dog.) VERY small. I wasn't wearing my glasses so I really hope it resembles a dog.

I have always enjoyed this type of work. I've done life casting to create props (Dracula's and Macbeth's decapitated heads, for example) and hundreds (if not thousands) of individual prosthetic pieces over the years. 

Doing this workshop has really wetted my appetite to use molding and casting in my upcoming work. My head is whirling with ideas of how I could use this to create a couple of the concepts for pieces I've been thinking about... Having a stable mold means I could remake the parts that will, inevitably, get broken.

Having access to these experts and the facilities is, literally, blowing my mind with  the possibilities that abound.

Here are the resin coasters I cast - they might end up as trinket dishes or plant saucers.

I didn't photograph my sculpture before the silicone was poured into the mold, I am known for forgetting to take photos of things before moving on to the next step. Hope it will be intact after the silicone is removed so I can get one then.