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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.