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Old 04-02-2012, 04:13 AM
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mrthe mrthe is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Spain
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Default How to make a easy Casting of ours works

A good way of " backup" copies of our work and at the same time to give the opportunity to others of being able to study the work of other engravers, is make castings (exact copy molds) of them. Castings are a great source of study to be able to learn engraving, because it offers to us the possibility of having in our hands exact copies of works of other engravers and studying them to the minimal detail and at the same time a great tool to be able to make a copy of the works that we do and that once sold ,in most of the case we will not return to see in our life. I am going to you to explain the technique and materials briefly. This he is casting of my last Hobo Nickel that I have been carving the past week in the Steve Lindsay's videochat.

Step 1

it is necessary to build a container where vertes the liquid silicone, in my case I have used plastcine clay for the base, a crystal like work plane and a glass of plastic for the sidewalls .....



we flatten the surface so that it is a straight plane with the aid of something of the same thickness and an aluminum tube in my case, but serves any thing .....




Once we have the flat base, we put the model to reproduce with the face " good" by above ..........





and we used the glass of plastic with the trimmed bottom to create the vertical walls of the mold being sunk to him a little in the plasticine clay.





Step 2




We are going to prepare now the mixture of liquid silicone, in my case I have used bicomponent silicone of the Smooth-On mark, exactly model OOMOO 25, this silicone has a very low viscosity, is mixed in equal parts 1:1 and the advantage is that it is very simple to use for people does not have experience with molds and practically does not create bubbles consequently is very indicated by these types of works.





We mix the two parts until we have a uniform color ..........




and we spill in the mold that we finished doing ....... we left silicone it frague by 75 minutes, in this east case type of silicone is quite fast.


Step 3






Spent 6 hours we stripped ...........





and now, we have our ready the silicone mold, which we have obtained is a negative clearly, it will serve that us to realise our definitive copy.


Step 4




In order to realise our positive we are going to use a liquid plastic resin in this case I I have used the mark Smooth-On Smooth-cast 300 is a very good plastic resin of a white color that it hardens to room temperature in 10 minutes, she is very fast, it leaves a working time of 3 minutes, but that sufficient for the type of works that we are going to realise




we make level the mold to have a perfectly horizontal plane





we mix as before the resins 1:1 is equal parts as in the previous case .......




and we spill in the silicone mold ........





when the resin start to harden we see as it begins to take a color white ........



after the ten minutes casting already he is ready, we can appreciate since he has become totally white.





We strip and already we have our exact plastic resin copy!




Now we only have left to give the finished one casting, in this case I am going to do the same with the original one, because clearly if you need thought to make a copy the model must be perfectly clean, for that, I use latex gloves for protection (the ink spot) q-tips to paint and etching calcographic ink to obtain all the details, as much for casting that for the original one.





we cover with in the nickel and the casting and we retired the leftover with a piece of newspaper paper or with a soft paper.

And here the result .....

The Casting






The Original Nickel





As you can observe the reproduction of the detail is perfect and now you have a copy of your work
We can to realise hundreds of copies with the same mold, to make that you only follow the instructions of the manufacturer to keep from suitable way the molds

I hope is to you of utility.



Expecially thank to Gert to eplain to me how make it and where buy all the components heare in Europe!!!
And To Steve too to allow me post it!
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