Thursday, January 28, 2010

More Sketchup Models

I'm using Sketchup a lot lately, and I figured I'd give you guys an idea of some of what it can do. You remember that bottle rack thing I was doing for Halloween that got scrapped? Well I decided to model it in Sketchup to see what it would look like in 3-d. Took my something like 1/10 the time to do in Sketchup that it did in a regular 2D paint program. The model isn't all done yet, but the remaining parts are little fiddly things like getting the turnbuckles to look perfect and all that.



Here are a few that show what I want to do with the fancy D20 candle.



Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Now for something completely different...

I found this blog yesterday: Knock-Off Wood

It's awesome. Very cool furniture made for much less than what it would cost to buy it from the store. So I decided to try my hand at designing something and came up with this:



This is a detail shot of the feet. The tops are the same thing, just reversed.



I'll probably keep playing with it, but this seemed like a pretty cool start. I'll actually add a headboard and footboard I'm sure. Still, I'm inspired to design furniture that I can then build. Designing using standard lumber dimensions is definitely key.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Shopping Trip

I found a sculpture supply store in Denver last week and made the trip out there yesterday. It's a small place and it's in a bit of a skeevy-looking area, but they're an authorized distributor for Smooth-On products so it was worth a look. They're only open 10-5 M-F so it was tough to get up there before they closed, but I made it. I picked up my trial-sized pack of Oomoo 25 and brought it home. I haven't actually used it yet, but I'm pretty excited. I'm going to use it with the gothic sort of candle, I think. The more complex candles are probably very well-suited to the detail the Oomoo can capture, but I've also already got molds done for them. What I may do is wait until I get a successful candle out of the white-silicone mold I made before using the Oomoo. If the candle doesn't turn out like I want it to, I can just make the mold with the Oomoo and get the candle that way. The cheap way of making the mold would probably be perfect with the gothic mold, since it's so simple and smooth. We'll have to see how it all works out, but I think it'll be cool.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The White Stuff

The white silicone is really surprising me in several ways. First, it seems to be easier to put on large amounts of it and have it dry quickly. No idea what that's about. Second, it seems to be very flexible, but also pretty tough. We'll see how that pans out later. I've got the cut seam on there and drying today. I'm thinking I'll be pouring plaster into the mold to make the cast this time. Partly because I'm out of bandages and don't feel like buying or making more and partly because it'll be much easier to store that way. I'll be using a little 1-quart bucket as the mold for the plaster, so everything will fit inside of that. I will even endeavor to be able to use the lid on the thing. We'll see how that goes.

I'm also going to the store today to get the smooth-on Oomoo 30 trial pack. It's $25, but I think it's worth the expense to learn how to use this stuff and to see if it's worth it in terms of quality of the mold and time saved. I mocked up a quick model of the candle form I'll be using in Google Sketchup. That program is amazing.



Pretty cool, eh? I think it'll make a great candle. So I'm doing all that, maybe even tonight. Should be exciting!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Slacker!

So...I started the project and didn't take any pictures. Dang, I'm such a slacker!

Still, A few things have become apparent. First, the white silicone is fundamentally different from the clear. It's more runny and less sticky. I'm not sure how that will affect the final product, but it's worth noting. Also, painting the release onto the tile makes it an absolute breeze to remove the silicone. I just peeled up an edge to see how it looked and it came up without any problems at all. Woot. I'm putting on lots of layers of the white and I'm debating whether or not I want to intersperse the white layers with clear for structure and texture. Using the white is much nicer as far as seeing the voids and making sure everything is covered properly, but with the change in consistency I'm not sure how the final mold will turn out. I'm tempted to finish one using all white and see how it is.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Now that's what I call a sticky situation

So...I learned an important lesson today. A lesson I wish I'd learned a very long like ago. Like 2-3 weeks ago. Like before I did all this work on the candle mold. Based on this and the title, you may be guessing what I've learned. What I learned is that cured silicone is like a bar of soap wrapped in bacon coated in Teflon. Nothing sticks to it. Uncured silicone however, is much more like...Velcro covered in maple syrup. It's sticky as hell and it's not going to take it anymore.

I found out that the mold I spent so much time and effort on, the mold I lovingly crafted over the past few weeks, is thoroughly and irrevocably stuck to the model. Le sigh. I'm a dolt, in case that part hadn't been made clear. I neglected to put any kind of mold release on the model or on the tile in the first place. My reasoning behind this, was the apparently overwhelming idea that "Nothing sticks to silicone." This is true, but only when the other substance is applied after the silicone is cured. If either substance being applied is uncured silicone, you're in for a sticky time. This is a lesson I will not soon forget.

This is what happened. The easy part was removing the cured plaster casts from the cured silicone (cured long before the plaster was applied). No problems, even without any kind of release. Then I had to cut the now-cured silicone free from the tile (no mean feat). That should've been my first clue that something was wrong. I didn't get it. Then I had to try to extricate the mold from the cured silicone. Ugh. Not at all what I was hoping for.

With the lessons I have learned, I feel like I am ready to tackle the real project. I will need to scrape the tile clean and start totally fresh, so I'll get to work on that. This time, there will be pictures.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Plaster Casts

So I've gotten to the next step in the project with the trial run. I have finished the silicone mold, and am now working on the plaster mother mold. This part is kind of fun, and it's a neat way to do it. I did mess up a bit in a few key ways. First, I forgot to add the clay separation around the edge of the mold. Whoops! That just about messed me up. Second, when I did put the clay on there, I didn't make the wall flat or wide enough. It needs to be very flat and very wide. You'll want at least 2.5-3 full inches of clay on all sides so you can get a serious overlap. I think covering the clay with foil is a good idea, too. It keeps your clay from getting all plastery, and it will also help on the other side. I'm actually thinking about just doing the foil instead of the petroleum jelly for this one. We'll see.

So anyway, things seem to be going well. It has been an incredible amount of work to get this thing done, and it's taking a really long time. Next time, I think I can speed up the process with a few minor changes. Since I'll be following that one in photos and on this blog, I'll save the explanations for when I have pictures to show the reasons more effectively.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Candle in the Wind

Actually, the candle is in the garage. There's really no wind at all. It is progressing, though. Here's what I've learned so far.

First, the first layer needs to be very thin, the capture detail. Subsequent layers can be quite a bit thicker. As long as the first layer is thin and dry, any layers afterward will just be sticking to it. Second, use of foam brushes instead of bristle brushes is okay. Finding cheap foam brushes is easier than finding cheap bristle brushes a lot of the time. Also, the clear silicone makes it very tough to see voids and everything. I'm thinking very seriously about going with the white next time, just to see if that makes it easier.

Second, a square of tile makes a great platform for this. I got a 12"x12" piece of tile off the closeout rack at Lowe's for $0.72 and no work involved in cutting it to size. I have also confirmed that it will be reusable, as the hot glue and silicone will peel/scrap off. It doesn't have to be a perfectly smooth tile, either. Mine has a very slight texture to it and it's still fine. The silicone sticks to itself tenaciously and to everything else basically not at all. The hot glue will stick to the tile well enough to hold something down, but not so well that it can't be scraped off. That's also cool. A 12"x12" piece of tile is big enough for most anything I'd be doing at this point. The mold needs a good-sized skirt on it, but I'm not making anything big enough that it wouldn't have room.

Third, I was right about the smell of the silicone. It smells like very strong vinegar and a quick read of one of the tubes confirms that acetic acid is released in the curing process. That's very good news. What it means is that my nose works properly, and also that with proper ventilation, this stuff isn't going to kill me. It's just super-strong vinegar, not some hideous death-chemical like hydrofluoric acid (that stuff haunts my dreams).

So there you have it. Still no pics yet, though. No pics until I get a successful test on the trial run and know that this is going to work out.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Source Documents

Just so you don't think that I come up with all this stuff on my own, here's the site where I've gotten most of my info on mold-making and casting. I've also included the videos pertaining to the method I'm going to be using for this project.

Smooth-On

Here's their youtube site: Smooth-On Youtube

This is an idea I've had for a while: Statuary Candles

This is actually closer to what I'll be doing. Without spending a buttload of money on the pourable silicone mold-making stuff, you sort of have to use the stuff you brush on. Part 1 and Part 2

Since I'm cheap, I'll be using the hardware store silicone instead of the fancy mold-making silicone. This means a few things. First, I have to do a lot more thin layers than they do. Their stuff is awesome and thick layers will dry very quickly. The hardware store stuff needs plenty of air to cure. If you put too thick of a layer on, the underside won't dry and you'll end up with a cured silicone jacket riding on a nasty gel layer. Second, it really needs to be done outside. I don't know for sure that the fumes from the silicone are harmful, but it really stinks. Smooth-On has spent a ton of money on R&D to make their stuff nonhazardous and still effective. I'll also be using plaster bandages instead of the plasti-paste. This is also because I'm cheap. A roll of plaster bandages is like $6 or you can go even cheaper by buying some burlap and some Plaster of Paris and making your own. If you think the stuff they use in these videos is awesome (and you'd be right) you can get cool starter kits from them with everything you need to make your own, but it'll set you back $50 or more.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Failure to Craft

So I had this great idea for Christmas gifts for all our friends, right? I thought so too. I was going to make everyone 20-sided die candles. They'd be small and cute and geeky and would give me a chance to work on my mold-making, which is definitely a good thing. So I went to work.

I sunk the die halfway into some clay, then began to brush silicone onto it. The regular silicone caulk you get from the hardware store makes a great flexible mold and it's really cheap. Smells like hell, but it works. So I made probably a dozen or more layers of silicone on this thing. Had the silicone extend down onto the clay to make sort of a skirt. Then I poured some plaster onto it to make the firm mold backing. This process isn't too tough (just time-consuming) and you get the benefits of the flexible mold and the firmness of a plaster mold in one. Very good stuff. Still can't get too crazy with undercuts or anything, but the silicone is far more forgiving than the plaster. I repeated the same process on the other side to get myself a full die mold.

This is what I learned: When doing these coats of silicone, less is more. I thought I was adding thin layers, but I was wrong. They need to be really thin. Like you add maybe a drop the size of a skittle for an area about 10 square inches or something. This will help it to dry properly, but it will also keep it smoother. That's another thing. If you're doing this, get a ton of those little disposable paintbrushes that are like $1 for a dozen of them. Buy a dozen of those packs. If you can figure out how to clean the silicone off the brush without destroying the brush you may not need so many, but still. Get a bunch. Make tiny layers and keep them smooth. Smooth layers will adhere well and will also release from the plaster mold more easily. Mine were really rough with all sorts of undercuts and such and they just didn't work. Once I took the silicone out of the plaster, it was a battle to get it back in again. Also, you really want to make some mold keys. Mold keys make sure the molds halves fit together perfectly. You can use anything, really. I like the idea of hex nuts, though. I'll be using those next time.

So I learned a lot about what not to do, and now I'm thinking I know what I'd prefer to do with that knowledge. Since it's also no longer a surprise, I can take some pictures of the process so you guys can see how it's done.