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hmm… 6 reasons (many may apply) for breakage could be:
1. your mother mold was to thin in thickness or plaster
parts versus water. Or to much plaster powder
2. you did not have a clear parting line, not enough parting lines or you did not apply enough of the divider
3. Your first mold had to many undercuts, meaning the mother mold snagged on it and then broke where its least resistance was.
4. (not to likely but possible) you had to much divider that soaked into the mother mold and weakend it
5. You applied the plaster to late when it was half setted
6. You touched the mother mold before the plaster had cured right and it got haircracks (I usually wait overnight)if it cheers you, my first molding was nearly… uhm… dangerous for me. I did not mix the latex properly and inhaled a lot of whatever fumes in it (up to today I have a wheezing part in my lung) and ruined the original because stuff soaked into it and the whole mold was like… gum.
*g*numbers 5 and 6 I believe…sigh…I think after a few tries I’ll get the hang of it. The snaildragon where the rubber tore is because I missed a small spot underneath her chin and the rubber stuck there, really, really stuck. 🙄
Wow…that sounds like a lot of work. I’ll leave it to you. lol Don’t give up! I’m sure you’ll get it right. Like you said it was just your first try.
purplecat wrote:numbers 5 and 6 I believe…sigh…I think after a few tries I’ll get the hang of it. The snaildragon where the rubber tore is because I missed a small spot underneath her chin and the rubber stuck there, really, really stuck. 🙄
oh darn.
anyhow, to point 5:
you can use such things as time lenghteners (or something, dunno english term for it), I believe even a simple squirt of lemmon juice can help. Do check up details on this aswell as amount of the acid needed.
Use COLD water and put the plaster into the water and not the water into the plaster. Stirring sets the plaster faster, so if you stirr your mold MUST be totally fully completly ready for the plaster. At school this used to be a half a minute from using the first thin plaster to sprinkle on the details and 3 minutes later the whole thing was on.
If you are not sure about the mass to use and the dripping issue I highly recommend you make yourself a third mold to hold your mother mold in place, kind of like a basin out of clay. That way you would get a natural seam.
looks like this (please note this is not a plaster tut, but pretty similar):
http://www.thedarkpower.com/Stop%20Motion%20Alien%20moldmaking/images/100_9456.jpg
(full awesome must see thread on conceptart here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90581 beware of pun on the nekkid alien parts!)Let your plaster rest. As long as it is still warm do not touch it. I know you wanna go and crack the egg, who wouldnt, but you have to wait. I believe that even half a year later you can still open the mold, just soak the plaster clutz in water and then tap it gently and lovingly (as our teacher would say) at the seams.
as long as the surface is rough you can add another layer of plaster, just incase if its not thick enough.PS: my first plaster mold try, a trilobite, was plastered solidly mummylike into a clutz of plaster because I forgot the divider. May he rest in peace
Haha, a new use for legos!! Yeah, i didn’t realize how fast that stuff can start to set and was thinking I had more time than I actually did….I think my divider walls were too weak as well. Hmmmm….
Here’s some pics of what I’m sculpting on now. I’m reworking the snail dragon molds and I’m feeling more confident this time around. I worked on the sculptures some and adjusted problem areas, that way I wont have quite so much to fix on the soft plaster, these may be good enough to just cast straight out. I’ll know by Monday whether these molds will be the ones to keep. This mermaid’s a pretty big girl…I’m using a super large cookie sheet as a work area. Lemme know what you think of her so far! 😀
I just started her so she’s pretty rough still…
Well, she’s sleeping so I really want to make her so the buyer would have the choice to lay her on a table or hang her on the wall, whichever suits each person best. 😀 😀
foxfeather wrote:Looking good! Her face looks so detailed. She looks like she’ll be a wall hanging. 😀
That’s what I was gonna say 😀 And I love her hair… wish I had waves and ringlets like that!
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