Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Bow before Zod!

Well really, it should be "Kneel before Zod" but that totally misses the "bow" pun, doesn't it? I have started working on bows. I know, it's been a long time since I posted that I was going to. I got the wood, traced the pattern onto it and then let it sit for weeks. Then I started cutting out the shapes with the bandsaw and really messed it up hard. So I got a second piece of wood, traced the shapes onto it, tightened the bandsaw blade and cut it out, this time meeting with marginal success. I smoothed everything down with a rasp and thumb plane (my little green work pony) and got it more or less how I wanted it. I glued the riser to the bow, so now I just need to mark that out and cut to the lines. You'll notice no pictures. Partly, this is because I figured I'd be messing up a lot and wanted to get pictures of a bow that I could be proud of. Good thing, too.

So anyhow, it seems to be going well so far. I'll let you all know what I think about it as I get farther along.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween: Complete

Halloween was a pretty big success. I got my coat and walking stick completed, got Jenna's skirt and jacket completed and got our friend's mask as done as I could. I'm going to refinish it for her. I may do another coat of resin on the outside to help smooth out the imperfections. I'll be sanding, priming, painting, etc as well. Now that I'm not up against a deadline, I can really spend some time being picky about it and making sure I like it. I could honestly even just re-glass the thing if doing the rest of it turns out to be too much of a pain.

So my next projects are finishing the mask and getting some work done on bow-making. I'm going to run a simple class on making bows from lumber. I'm going to have to make a complete one for myself to make sure I know how to do it, then make several other bows to various stages so I can run my class without getting to the "and now the glue dries" stage. I'll be taking lots of pictures of everything while I'm working on it, for sure.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Walking Stick: Complete

The walking stick is all the way done. No pics just yet, but I'll get some soon. The E6000 glue is freakin' amazing. I was worried about the ball falling off if I looked at it funny but it is rock solid. I've been turning the thing every which way, even upside down and it's fine. I think I'll still be careful with it, but it's good to know I don't need to be concerned about the ball falling off if I lean it against a wall or something.

Also got Jenna's skirt almost all done (need to hem) and her coat almost all done (just needs buttons) so I'm ready to get on with my own coat. It's a short week so I'm hoping to have enough time to get it all done. I may take a half day of work tomorrow or something. We're supposed to get a bunch of snow so I could even have a semi-legit excuse.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Oh, look! A new hobby!

So my wife found something yesterday called Chip Carving. I'm sure I'd seen things done with it before but never really knew what it was or how it was done. We ran over to the local woodworking store (yes, we totally have one of those) and picked up a couple carving knives and a sharpening stone. We also hit the hobby shop and grabbed a big basswood plaque. Basswood is apparently the greatest thing ever for carving. Good to know.

Here's the site where we're getting most of our info: My Chip Carving

There are lots of videos from this guy on Youtube and you probably have some books at the library you could check out, too. It's really just a neat way to decorate wood. I'll need to find a decent source for basswood if we keep going with this but it's certainly a beautiful decoration even if we just use smaller pieces.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Out of my hands

Okay, I dropped the mask off with the recipient yesterday, so the remainder is out of my hands. She and her parents are going to do some foam padding, some paint and glue some ribbons into it to tie it on, so I'll definitely be getting pictures of the finished project. Here are the last few pictures of the mask before I left it. *Sniffle* I'll miss that mask.

This is the visor we'll have taped in there. It's made of a clear report cover with some automotive window tint film applied to it. It's cheap, easy, makes a good color and is flexible enough to be taped into place. For larger projects where I have a lot more time to work, I would still prefer to do a bent piece of tinted acrylic, but this is a great solution for a quick fix.


And there's our Revan! The mask fit her pretty much perfectly, I have to say. If I had it to do over, I would've made the chin a bit longer to allow for more movement of the mouth inside the mask, but it isn't bad as it stands. I'm so excited to see it with paint on it!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Tada!

Here's the actual mask itself, after long last.









Looks a bit messy right now. I'll clean it up, fill the void spots, maybe get a coat of black paint on it or something and then take some more pics. Still, I'm very pleased. It's not very thick or heavy so it should be comfy to wear for a while. For things I make for myself later on, I'll probably do two coats of cloth and a few of mat to get a real thick, heavy piece. I like some weight to my projects because I tend to bash into stuff a lot.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Through a fiberglass, darkly

Well the moment of truth arrived last night. I laid the fiberglass into the mold and started the drying process. This is where we get to see whether all the sculpting and molding and casting and everything actually works out. I'm really hoping that it does, and that this mask will be awesome.

I was a bit worried last night and this morning, as the resin didn't seem to be drying at all. It was just sitting there, staying sticky. I used a lot of resin because fiberglass cloth is very thirsty, and I used what I though was an appropriate amount of hardener. So, I was concerned that maybe I'd messed it up somehow and it wasn't going to dry and I'd have to cut the cloth and lay it in again and all that. Ugh. thankfully, today at lunch everything appeared to be hardening up. The edges are getting significantly stiffer, which is a very good sign. It may be another few hours before the thing is really on its way to being fully hardened and I'm tempted just to leave it be until tomorrow night. We'll see how my patience is looking.

In the meantime, here are some pics of the mold with the fiberglass in it and the workspace. I felt like such a champion when I set up my station. I had popsicle sticks and disposable brushes and latex gloves all ready and waiting, had all my glass cloth cut and laid out, had my respirator, had a little cardboard box for trash and everything. Even had a tuna can for mixing the resin so I don't ruin anything I care about. The preparation really paid off in ease of work. I'll be doing that again, for sure.

This is the workspace and the mold with the glass in it. You can see that it's just a scrap piece of particle board on two saw horses, but it worked well for me. Didn't risk my nice bench top, either.

Looks nasty, right? It smells terrible. It's taking a long time to cure but I'm going to let it just air out for a good long while, too. I may suggest a clearcoat or a coat of paint on the inside of the mask as well as the outside to lock the fumes in.


So there it is! Next pics will be of it pulled out of the mold and ready for trimming.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

A Sticky Situation

Finally some updates on the walking stick. Here's are pics of where it stands currently.

This is the whole thing without the ball on top. You can see the polished copper and brass and the dark wood. I really like how it all looks together.


Close-up of the top collar. Those holes are for the switch and mounting screws and whatnot. I'm debating whether to sand it down and try again with the clear coat due to the drippiness. I might just go with it for now and replace it late or something.


Here's a close-up of the actual wood part. You can see the grain a bit. I think this was a gorgeous piece of wood. There's so much interesting grain in here and the carving really made it even more complex and cool.


Here's the bottom cap. It'll have a rubber foot put onto it to avoid scratching up the floors of wherever I end up. The best part? Those brass studs holding the hardware onto the wood are removable so I can get in there and replace parts without ruining anything. Sweet.


This is what the final piece will look like. The ball is just resting up top for now but it'll be firmly glued on when I have my way. It'll also be lit up with some UV light so it'll glow a cool blue. Sweet.


A bit more of the cane with the ball on top. I really like how this looks. I think it turned out very well indeed.

Monday, October 12, 2009

De-mold, boss! De-mold!

So I couldn't wait until tonight to demold the piece. I did it at lunch and snagged a few pics.

To get a good grip on the piece so I can pull it out of here, I need to clear the clay from the bottom of the original mold. This is going to take some work.


Still clearing clay. I'm trying not to damage the original more than necessary in case there's an issue with the mold.


Just about clear, here. I just need to dig past it enough to get myself a handle so I can pull it out of there. Some of this is about how well you greased up the model in the first place and some is about the vacuum formed by such a tight fit between these two surfaces.


Out! And the original isn't damaged very much at all. Sweet!


You can see a little bit of additional surface roughness from the Vaseline. I'm sure the moisture cooking out of the plaster is helping with this, too.


Here's our negative! Looks pretty good to me. The plaster mix ended up not being enough to cover at first and it was a little thick so I had to mix up two more batches to cover the whole thing. Lame, I say. You'll notice some small air pockets and other surface variations.


There's a big air pocket. Not sure what I'll do with these. I can fill them with clay, maybe. I can mix up some thick plaster to work into the larger bubbles and then paint the interior with a thin plaster wash to fill in smaller air bubbles or something.



Well, now it's all over but the cryin', as they say. I need to do some cleanup in here, maybe a little bit of sanding for any rough spots and a little filling with some compound or another for the little voids. All in all, not too bad. What I really need to do is to remember that I need to mix my plaster very wet and very thoroughly for a mold pour like this. If the plaster's thin it'll take longer to set up, but it'll also tend to avoid bubbles better. I also need to make more than I think I'll need for the project. With this one I made 3 pounds of plaster. That wasn't enough so I made another 3. That still wasn't enough so I made another 2. I had to use 8 pounds of plaster when I thought 3 would do. Keep that in mind.

Mask Time

Hey folks! Well I've been hard at work trying to get this mask piece all the way done for our friend. It's a lot of work but it's going to be so cool when it's done. I'm going to post a ton of pictures so you can see the whole process. Or at least much of the process.

Here goes:


This is the outside of the mold we made of our subject's face. The clay in the nose is to plug up the nostrils. This is a pretty thick mold, as we did multiple layers. I figure it can be used at least a few more times to make bases for future castings.


This is the inside of the same mask. You can see how rough it is around the mouth and eyes. ugh. I need to practice this a lot more, I think. Thankfully it doesn't matter much for this build, but still. Not at all what I'd like.


Yeah. This is the mold. If you know the girl it looks a bit like her, but with really messy features. If I do this again, I'm going to use larger pieces of plaster bandage exclusively. They seem to work a lot better than smaller ones. I may do some smaller pieces across the nose but only after the first layer is on.


Here's the inside and outside together.


The plaster base is buried in this big pile of clay. What purpose is there to making a plaster base when you're just going to pile clay on it, you ask? It helps me know how wide the piece needs to be, how long, where the eyes and nose are, and all the rest. It just makes a huge difference in being able to make a final piece that matches the face. When doing a mask that actually follows the contours of the face, this is absolutely essential. Don't skip the plaster mold!


Another view. You can see the primary tool I'm using for shaping and smoothing there, too.


My first pass. Messy, bulky, just generally ick. I also didn't see the piece properly in my head when I started so I kinda took some wrong turns at first.


The eye piece smoothed out and thinned but now I have a mountain for the curved piece under the eyes instead of a valley. Thanks to my wife, I got this fixed in later versions.


Still very rough, put some cheek pieces on it. Still way ugly, I think.


Here we go. My wife set me straight finally. That curved bit should be dug into the clay, not built up. You can also see that there's a clay remnant ring up at the top. That's because I pulled the whole thing off the board, set the mask down, made some marks for the eyes on the board and then built it back up. It didn't take much since I already knew what I wanted to do. I'm really glad I did it, though. I was a little canted and had no real good idea of where the eyes and nose were.


Still looking messy. Things aren't square, lines aren't straight. I'm so glad I kept working at it as long as I did.


Getting pretty close now. The visor is looking pretty okay and the cheek piece is definitely improved.


View from the bottom. This mask basically drops straight down from the visor to the chin. We'll have to do a lot of padding in there to make it sit right, but it'll look neat, I think.


Another angle. You can see that the curves are smoother, the corners are sharper and everything is just generally cleaner. We're almost ready for molding now!


Sometimes taking a picture of it helps me see imperfections. See how the shape of the curvy bit isn't consistent on the right side? That's gotta get fixed.


Maybe a bit better, but still not there.


Much better. Not perfect, but as good as I have the skill to get it. Time for molding!


Here's a mask someone else made. I saw this picture and it helped so much with my process. I was trying to match it pretty well as it's easily the best Revan mask I was able to find online.


Mask in a box. This cardboard box is all taped up to keep plaster in. Note that the surface the the mask is not shiny at all. Why is that? Because I'm always really impatient at molding time and forgot to brush Vaseline onto the darned thing before building the box. So I had to go in with a brush and do it after the box was built. Lame. I also didn't do the heat gun smoothing trick. I should have but I figure I can sand fiberglass pretty easily if I need to.


And another shot of the mask in a box. The plaster is poured and set as of this writing. I'll be demolding tonight and hopefully laying fiberglass in a day or two once it's had a chance to dry out some more.



Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

You leave plaster out too long and it starts to mold

So we took a mold of our friend's face on Sunday. It took until Monday night for the cast to really dry properly. That was way longer than I thought it would take, but it was also a pretty thick cast. So last night, I decided to mix and pour some plaster. It worked out pretty well. Not too messy at all and it mixed up really nicely. The nice thing is that I'm still using my leftover materials from old projects so I haven't had to bust into my new stuff at all yet. I do want to make a whole-head mold for myself eventually so I need all the practice I can get.

So this morning I got up early and demolded since I was awake anyhow. The piece seems to have worked out pretty well. We've got a good shape and some details, but not as many as I'd like, to be honest. Thankfully with this mask we're covering up all the details so it isn't a big deal. I'm going to take some pics of the base piece and then of me molding the mask on top of it. I'm going to try to get it as close as possible to the game mask, so I'll be using and comparing it to screen shots. I may well even start tonight with some of the basic setup work. Should be fun!

Here are some links to some great sites for information on casting and mold-making:

Smooth-On - This is the premiere source for molding and casting materials. they sell resins, silicone rubbers, expanding foams, brushable plastics, and more. Everything you could ever need to make a mold and then cast into it is here. This link takes you to the media site where they have a ton of videos explaining proper use of their products and showing exactly what you can do. Extremely cool and a great place to start.

DH2 Creations - These guys focus mostly on Star Wars gear but they have a lot of great info about body casting and sculpting in their tutorials.

Bioweapons - Don't let the name fool you. This guy doesn't deal in anthrax, just really awesome costumes made of painted hot glue. Sounds a bit odd I know, but you have to see it to understand. He is big on using low-cost but effective solutions to problems, which I really appreciate. He has some neat info here about body casts, how to sculpt onto a body cast, pulling molds of different parts of your body with different materials, etc.

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I keep coming back to again and again for info.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Cloaking Device: Me

Yesterday, my wife and i went to a friend's house to help her with her Halloween costume. She's going to be Darth Revan, as I'm sure I mentioned previously. Yesterday we got her on her way with a cloak. We were on a bit of a budget and had some pretty serious time constraints, so we went with the best fabric we could find at the local fabric store (aka Wal-Mart). It was a 45" wide black flannel. It's actually a nice fabric, it has a good weight and texture to it. I was really hoping for 60" fabric to make the whole thing easier, but that was not to be.

So, for those of you who are unfamiliar, there are several styles of cloak. You can do a yoke which is basically a simple shoulder piece with the cloak fabric hung from it. This is pretty simple and can use less fabric than other methods, but you don't get the same fullness as with other methods. You can do a half circle cloak. That's basically a half circle of fabric with a bit of a neck hole in it. This isn't a bad way to go, as it saves a lot of fabric and can actually be done almost without sewing at all. You still suffer from a lack of fullness, and I've had trouble getting them to sit on my shoulders properly. A three-quarters or full-circle cloak are the gold standard of cloakdom. Full circle gets more fullness and uses more fabric, but it's nearly indistinguishable from a well-made 3/4 cloak. I prefer 3/4 just because there's a significant cost and weight savings without much loss of fullness. Here's a diagram of what each of the styles looks like when laid flat (except the yoke style, because that one doesn't really lay flat very well).



You can see there is a distinct increase in the amount of fabric used each step up you take. The pattern used can be very simple, like this:



That's just two pieces with a seam down the back. You'll have to hem and everything, but just one seam isn't bad. This requires that you have fabric wide enough to make the cloak as long as you want it. 60" fabric would be enough for almost anyone.

If you don't have fabric that wide, you'll need to do wedges. The number and size of wedges will be determined by how long it needs to be and how wide your fabric is. This is why I don't have dimensions marked on my diagrams. Essentially, the distance from the center of the circle to the edge is the length of the cloak. The width of each panel is a function of how long the panel is and how much of the arc you can fill with the width of your fabric. Here's a picture of the panel method:



You can see with this pattern that by increasing or decreasing the number of panels, you can essentially create a cloak of any length with any width of fabric. It is much more time consuming and you end up with seams, but it is a perfectly acceptable option if you have fabric limitations or excessive height.

This is the method we used for our friend's cloak and she loved it. I slapped a hood on it, and it looked pretty darned good. It's even big enough that I figure she can wear it for a couple of years. If she gets much taller it'll become more of a mid-calf thing instead of a floor-length thing, but I don't picture her putting on much more height. We'll see, of course. So anyhow, that's about all there is to cloaks. Maybe I'll decide to draw a rough picture of the hood shape I like, but not today. I'll see if I can get some pics of the cloak at the Halloween party.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Router: Tamed

So I took the things I had diagrammed yesterday back home and worked on the project again. I think I was doing something wrong, but I still can't figure out what. I haven't changed my methods, but now it seems to be working. Wonder of wonders. So I'll be finishing up that bottle rack shortly, I think. I have decided to go with mitered corners with splines to reinforce. It will still be visually interesting but will hopefully be much easier to do than the finger joints. Once I have it constructed, I'll be staining it and then adding all the other goodies. I'm going to get all holes drilled before I stain so I don't have to go back and re-stain.

I need to get the brass bars I have planned for it cut and installed, too. I'm not quite sure how I want to do the whole thing yet, but we'll see. I may use various bits I have combined with glues and whatnot to make the whole thing look neat without being too much of a pain. I'll try to take more pictures of my progress as I go. I'll definitely take some pictures of it before assembly and before staining so you can see how it all looks.

I also have a big day planned for Sunday. We're helping a young friend of ours with her Halloween costume. We're making her a Darth Revan mask and probably a cloak. If you're unfamiliar, Darth Revan is a central character in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Here's a picture of the mask:



You can see that it's mostly featureless. Oddly, this is tougher than the alternative. In order to get a good fit for her, we'll need to take a plaster cast of her face. We'll also need to get and mix some plaster to pour into that mold to get ourselves a positive mold of her face. Once we have that, we can sculpt the mask on top of the base with clay and it will fit her. Using another face as a base will invariably lead to less-than-ideal fit. So we're hoping to get the mold of her face done and the positive mold poured on Sunday. If we have time we'll also try to demold and put some clay on the face. I'd love to have it set the way she likes it before I leave. That way I can make another mold of it and then work on the fiberglass. This is going to be a very serious mask. She's a very cool little kid and she's certainly going to appreciate the quality of the piece. Even if she doesn't wear it again, I can see her hanging it on her wall or something. It will also be a great opportunity for me to work on my mask-making skills. I think i have quite a bit of work to do in that regard, but this is a relatively simple piece so I think it will be good to practice.

That's about it for now. I'll take pictures of the mask-making process as well so you can see what we're doing and how. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Silly physics-defying router...

So I was working on some pieces for the bottle rack last night and determined that my router is defying physics. Not sure how that's going down, but it clearly needs to stop.

Here are some diagrams showing you the various aspects of the router and the jig I made for it. I'm hoping someone will see something I missed and be able to explain it to me.

This is the bottom of my router. It's a 6" diameter circle with a 1/4" bit in it. The distance from the edge of the face plate to the edge of the router bit is 2 7/8". That works out, both math wise and when I measure it.

This is the piece I want to make. I want a 3/4" wide groove 1/4" deep all the way across this piece.
This is the top view of the jig. The top and bottom pieces (with the dots on them) are screwed to a piece of particleboard. The two vertical pieces on the sides are on top of all three of the horizontal pieces of wood in the middle. They are the stops for the edges of the router.


This is a side view of the jig. The dotted line shows the part I want to have removed. These measurements should, by my thinking, give me exactly what I want. it just isn't working that way and I don't know why.

What I want to do with this is to create a groove for the middle shelf. It will look cooler than a butt joint and will be stronger as well. I just don't know why it isn't working for me. I'm going to have to work at it again tonight. Thankfully I ruined a few perfectly good pieces of wood by getting it wrong so I don't have to go purchase scrap.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Pictures of my...no, I can't do it.

So here is where I'll show you the different phases of the glowing orbs I'm using to top my cane. Here they are, in no particular order:

This is the clear UV ball with the UV LEDs underneath in their reflective harness. This is also in near-total darkness, as I'm sure you can see. The reflective setup really makes a difference with having the ball glow more or less uniformly. You'll notice you can't see the beams of light going through the ball at all. Success!


This is the same ball lit up in regular lighting. Actually it's a bit brighter than that, but still. You can see a bit of a blue glow to the ball, but not much of one. The really great thing with this ball is that it will glow bright white when exposed to flash photography, so that's neat.


Here's a quick shot of what the ball looks like when you take a picture of it with a flash. Pretty cool, huh?



This is the ball in regular no lights style. Still looks very cool. I think it's a winner.


This is the white ball in regular lighting. you can see how freakin' bright it is even with lots of ambient light. This is a 4-LED setup with a tiny tiny 12-volt battery in the harness. Sweet. I'm tempted to do this with the UV ball as well, just to pump more light into the ball. We'll see.


This is the ball lit up in a dark room. Very cool and very bright. You can easily use it to see your way down a darkened path or read a map or something. very handy, very cool looking. I just wish I could get the exact same ball without all the gouges and blemishes.


This is where this ball fails, basically. It just doesn't look quite cool enough when it's turned off.



Well there you are! You can see what I saw and hopefully come to the same conclusions I did. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.