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Hi Melody,
I’m dying of ‘insatiable curiosity’ to quote the ‘elephant child’ 😯 ! What sort of creative process do you go through when you start a new sculpt or new anything for that matter? Obviously it starts with an idea, but what happens from there? When you get to the actual sculpting what medium do you work in? How is a mold of the model made? I’ve pulled molds from things when I was in college using alginate or plaster of paris; is the process the same? What about color inspiration? A lot of the dragon colors remind me of the antique carnival glass that I collect. As a matter of fact, I display my dragons with my glass and they set each other off beautifully! Favorite carnival pattern? Dragon and Lotus, of course! Thanks for your time and hard work. Your vision makes the world a more lovely and charming place!
twindragonsmum
tdm
twindragonsmum wrote:Hi Melody,
I’m dying of ‘insatiable curiosity’ to quote the ‘elephant child’ 😯 ! What sort of creative process do you go through when you start a new sculpt or new anything for that matter? Obviously it starts with an idea, but what happens from there? When you get to the actual sculpting what medium do you work in? How is a mold of the model made? I’ve pulled molds from things when I was in college using alginate or plaster of paris; is the process the same? What about color inspiration? A lot of the dragon colors remind me of the antique carnival glass that I collect. As a matter of fact, I display my dragons with my glass and they set each other off beautifully! Favorite carnival pattern? Dragon and Lotus, of course! Thanks for your time and hard work. Your vision makes the world a more lovely and charming place!
twindragonsmumI sometimes start with a pencil sketch, but often as not I start with a ball of clay and an idea.
I make a rough sculpture, and then have a quickie mold made on it by our mold maker at Windstone.
Here is a pic of a rough clay original that is in my Elfwood gallery: http://www.elfwood.com/art/m/e/melodypena/rough_clay__paw_up_cr_.jpg.html
From this quickie mold, we cast a soft plaster “master” that I further detail, cut apart, change, add wax to, and generally make a mess of. This piece will then have another mold made on it and be cast again, either again in soft plaster, or a harder plaster depending on if I’m ready to start on fine details or not. If you check out my “staff gallery” here ( click on the “gallery” word above, at the top of this page) there are pics of many half finished pieces and some molds. Here is a pic of a mold: http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=16&pos=33
I will sometimes do five or more generations of molds and sculptures of each piece, until we end up with a pretty near perfect one.
The quickie molds are made of silicone rubber that is drizzled directly onto the sculpture forming a soft flexible covering. It is usually backed up with a supporting plaster “case” to hold it in shape when the sculpture is removed and it is poured with plaster.
The production molds are also made of silicone rubber, but are very precise in thickness, so that they can be very thin, and yet not rip quickly when used over and over again.
I get ideas for colors from everything, but I find it easiest to experiment with the colors we have and choose from them, rather than imagine a color we can’t achieve!Thanks Melody!
I really appreciate the detailed answer and for the peek into your creative process 😀
twindragonsmum
tdm
purplecat wrote:How do you take a piece out of the mold without tearing the mold or damaging the piece?
The mold is very thin and gets peeled off like a glove. They do tear though. The molds get replaced regularly.
The pieces can get damaged too if the demolder isn’t careful. The gypsum hardens allot as it drys. They are very fragile when they are fresh!
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