I’m Bringing Skeksis Back

So the pun was pretty bad, but one of the things that I keep hearing from friends that look at my new sculpt is that it reminds them of skeksis from The Dark Crystal. Yesterday I finished pouring 10 pieces from a mold that I made of my “Swamp Vulturite.” It was such a fun learning experience that I thought I would share some of my process.

I knew that I wanted to make a sculpt of this taxiderny-like swamp vulturite creature when I did the first drawing. I sculpted it with that in mind, leaving a wide base for an easy pour. I took the finished sculpt and sprayed it thrououghly with Smooth-On Universal Mold Release. This is to make sure that the mold materials do not stick to the original piece.

After that I used Mold Max 30 to create a mold. For this I used hot glue to attach my sculpt to a paper plate. I then took a plastic cylinder (old blank cd sleeve case) and glued that down to the plate after cutting a hole in the base where I could pour the mold material into. The Mold Max was a lot thicker than I thought it would be and reminded me of taffy. Next time I do it I will stir it with something stronger than a plastic spoon. You mix 2 chemicals together to make the mold and it should turn a light pink when mixed-through.  I didn’t mix mine as much as I should have and was lucky that my mold came out as good as it did. There were still ribbons of white silicone running through it. Here is the mold material along with the original sculpt, then the mold both closed and open with a pour.

Once I had covered the beak of my sculpt by a good inch I let the mold set for a few days.

I really thought it wasn’t going to work because I hadn’t mixed everything well. Cutting the mold open was quite a feat. Because there are so many nooks and curves to my sculpt it was very difficult to try and slice it directly in half. One of the things I learned is to try and cut it in one slice. I ended up pulling my knife out and when I went back in had a few uneven cuts. When cutting your mold it is important to determine where you want the seam to be, and more importantly where will it be easy to pull your newly poured toy from. You can see in the photo above that I tried to do it in the center.

Once I got the original out I went ahead and made my first pour. I used Smooth-On 300 which is a 2 part plastic that you mix in equal parts. Before mixing up the plastic be sure to spray your mold with the same mold release used before. If you don’t the poured plastic will stick to the mold and tear it apart. Here is an image of the first pour that I also added in some green dye to see how it looked. Then there is the second pour which I did a few minutes later. The smooth-on usually sets up pretty quickly. For me it took anywhere from 10 – 30 minutes. Because I was pouring in my basement the temperature was dropping and slowing the set time.

From there I went ahead and poured my first 10. Each of these is slightly different because of them being hand poured. I like that each is imperfect and unique showing that I crafted it rather than being mass-produced. Each piece will be hand painted and be available starting February 6 at Alcove Gallery for a 3 man show I will be in. Below are images of the first painted version, his name is Bernard.