Touching base

Gosh I haven't written anything for a while. The girls were using my computer during the school holidays and I tried to get to my blog but it kept blocking me saying that my password wasn't correct so I kept trying but didn't waste too much time to reset it. So finally I have reset it and will hopefully sit down soon and update the past 2 months.Bye for now.

Cast taken from 2 piece mould

This is the second cast taken , the first from the silicone rubber mould before anything has been done to it. The edges will need to be surformed to remove the excess plaster and the line where the two halfs of the mould meet or the seam line will need to be removed with great care.

There is a cavity in the plaster by the hip which will need filling and also the extra plaster by the waist, neck and arms will need to be removed.
The screw holes in the centre wall can be seen.
The plaster will now dry out for two weeks before the process of patinating can begin.

Body casting

These are the finished images of the cast, bronze patina and waxed with a brown wax to highlight and protect the cast.



My beautiful model is propped in position for the duration of the plaster casting session, the pose needs to be taken into consideration, as to whether the model can maintain this position for about 30 minutes approximately.
The model is covered with a layer of petrolium jelly and her pose needs to have some support for her to be comfortable. Her arms are supported and her hip leans against the table.
On this day the model is working in extreme heat of 39 degrees c which added to the difficulty of the pose being held.
The cast has been removed and inspected for faults on the plaster. Although there are some bubbles, the cast has been successful.
The mould is repaired with fresh plaster where there are small blemishes such as bubbles and minor problems on the surface.
The mould is brushed with more petrolium jelly to make sure the new layer of plaster does not stick to the existing plaster whilst making a cast of the body mould.
Plaster is prepared in batches and brushed into the mould and built up to an even thickness all over the cast of 20 cm or 3/4 inch. The back of the mould is smoothed out and this time can be used to include arrangements for hanging the piece or incorporating a rod for a stand.

Once the plaster has set, leave several hours before taking the original mould off the second plaster being careful to not to mark or dig your tools into the new cast

Again blemishes in the new plaster can be filled by wetting the plaster down and filling with a small batch of new plaster in the holes as seen on the inner breast area.

Areas can also be strengthened where they are thin as on the lower edge of the torso and around the armholes and inner neck.
The back of the form can also be shaved back with a surform or knife if the plaster is too thick.

Work still needs to be done on the edge of the arms and at the back of the neck, but it is New Year's eve and I was sure the client would like a glimpse of the work.


I am happy with the work and so is the client.
The plaster now needs to dry out completely for about two weeks before applying the patina or colouring of the plaster.

The patching of holes can be seen under the breast where a cavity was repaired.

I decided to paint the surface with a layer of white acrilic paint to have a clean surface to work on although this is not necessary.
I then used the instructions from an old book I had used many year's ago, Modelled Sculpture & Plaster Casting by Arnald Auerbach in chapter 13 on finishing and colouring plaster casts.
A thin layer of shellac is painted over the cast and allowed to dry.
The next step is to add some Burnt umber powder into a small amount of the thinned shellac or White Polish in a saucer and give the cast a coating of this.

Then add some bronze powder and drag it into the coating on the prominences of the cast.
It can look too aggressive and I found it took a few attempts to make it look like a bronze cast

I wasn't completely satisfied with the result but went on and melted some beeswax with a little Turps overnight and added burnt umber to the liquid wax and painted on the coloured wax.


and also applied the same sequence to the back of the cast

I kept having small troublesome areas that would not colour correctly and always looked like patched colour and the trouble with shellac is the fact if you work the area a little too long the coloured ares becomes sticky and lifts off easily which kept happening.

Eventually we decided that I could use the work also so that meant that I needed to make a mould to recast another piece for myself and that also gave us the possibility to have a bronze piece cast as well.

This meant that I would need to make a two piece mould and that I could retackle the colour of the first cast again after making the new 2 piece mould.

The troubled colour is evident on the side of the torso as it lays on a blanket of clay.
A wall of clay is placed around the torso and built across the chest and stomach to divide the piece for easy separation.

A layer of silicone rubber was first placed over half the torso and allowed to set over night
A second thin layer layer was placed over the first layer and squares of felt covered this whilst it was still sticky and allowed to go off.

Two layers of resin with fiberglass cloth imbedded between the layers was then added to the felt making a three layer flexible mould.

The sides of the mould were trimmed, the clay fence down the middle was removed and cleaned and a coating was applied to the areas where the second side would butt against the first side so that it would not stick together.

The same proceedure was repeated on the second side of the torso.


Edges trimmed and seam line brushed with petrolium jelly to stop the rubber adhering to the parting seam.



Silicone rubber layers first.

Then the resin layers.
After the resin has cured, the seams are trimmed and holes are drilled in the parting seams to screw the pieces together, so they can be unscrewed to take each side off separately.
This is done before the moulds are taken apart.


The screws can now be removed.
The first side is removed and it has partly peeled off the layer of colour with the rubber.

Second half removed and the parting line can be seen.

Making a body cast

I wanted to show bloggers the steps to take you through the making of a body cast.
I haven't written anything for a month and have been meaning to post this all month but just haven't gotten round to reducing the images till now.
I'll post the images and fill in the information.
I'm having trouble uploading images so will have to solve some problems with them first.

Slowly getting back to work

I am beginning to work on a new portrait, this time a smiling man. I will be working on other busts in clay for a group show showing during SALA in July/August, in Adelaide, SA.

I have also signed a three month committment to Step into Life, a fitness group with a personal instructor and did a fitness test to start with a 2 km run and various 2 minute tests of pushups, weights, situps, continuous running and squats yesterday so today I can feel my shoulders have been working.
Hopefully I will be more willing to get out and exercise, as the mind is willing but just decides that something else needs to be done first and I just don't end up exercising. So we will see how motivated I get.

There are some beautifully Printed cards of the Mary MacKillop Bronze on sale by the Adelaide Catholic Archdiocese, which I hadn't personally seen until I received one as a Christmas card, so I went into the city and bought 5 packs at $10 each and was able to give my family a memento when I was with them a week ago.
I also have been told that the church has sent 5 orders for miniatures to the foundry.

Visiting my family

John and I left Thursday last to travel to Albury NSW, to catch up with all my family. My eldest brother and his wife were celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary, whilst my second brother and his wife were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, with a lunch for family and friends ,whilst their son and family were visiting them from Ho Chi Min City. So it was catch up time to see everyone, even my youngest brother and his wife were there from Brisbane, Qld and we stayed with my third eldest brother, LaurieWe actually were away from Adelaide while it was extremely hot 43c, but it caught up with us when we arrived back on Monday

First work in new studio

Hope everyone had a joyful Christmas break and a Happy new year. Thanks to all the bloggers for returning to read this blog and I hope you all have had a good restful break over the holidays.

I started today with an outdoor Cardio session with a group of people and a trainer and knew that I need to get fit again.
They ask you to sign up for three months, so I will need to get into the swing of exercising again as I have been very slack of late.
I have been looking at all the snow pictures especially around Twente region in Holland, and here we are in the 30c over here.
I had a request to make a body cast several days ago so this event christened the studio.
After a false start with alginate that was out of date and set within a minute of mixing the kilo batch, we restarted the process with plaster bandages, and was glad I had a helper to cut extra bandages for me.
It took a bit longer than using alginate, but I learnt a few things along the way. The pose was in an s curve with arms raised so the pose was uncomfortable for my friend to hold and the day was also very hot about 39c, which didn't help.
I cast the body mould in plaster and spent the rest of the day cleaning, patching small bubbles and making it ready for my friend to see it later that evening and were very happy with the results.
I will wait for it to dry out and then patina it ready for mounting.
We will at some stage do more but will use fresh alginate as it is not so hard on the model.