Cow Head Progress

I got my mold completely finished and tested for my second round of larger cow heads. (larger than faux bovinae and meant to replace that piece)

The mold is made of Smooth On "Stroke" brush on silicone. The mother mold is plastipaste in three parts. I started this piece before the summer and finally got around to finishing the mother mold. It holds together fairly well. I was able to test the mold today using a decent amount of Smooth-On Smooth Cast 300 White Urethane Resin.  I made the mistake of trying to add more resin to the piece once the original resin had cured and got a bit of overlap. I went over the overlap with a rotary tool and was able to do some touch ups to get the piece closer to normal again.

I plan to cast a few wax ones Thursday and Friday for a melting piece. I might paint the resin one for fun and mount it as well.

First layer or two of brush on silicone

two of the three part mother mold

finishing the mother mold

Inside out cow head. The is the view inside the silicone mold

Resin next to clay

some demel work started

Resin Cow. Moo.

From Another Angle. My hand in there for size. Some Dremel work started.
Still a bit dirty from in the mold. Once touch ups are done it will be primed
and painted.

Light Switch Cover

I decided it was time for a change of pace and so I did a quick 2 day project. It was a lot of fun!

I made kitty light switch covers!! I thought they would be fun gifts for my cat loving friends.

Took some chevant clay and sculpted the design over switch plate

brush on silicone mold

Mother mold of plasti paste

After the mold is done

Filling with resin

Example of the finished wall piece.

The next thing I would like to do is prime and paint a few to see how that looks

Spring break crunch

It's been a very busy spring break. I have been putting in many hours getting everything gallery ready for the show. I still have a few things left but I am getting closer.

I have five of the melting photos from Underneath mounted on 20" x 30" mounts I made for them.

I also finished my miniature melting cow heads which is called Faux Bovinae. It features a series of five wax cow heads mounted to wood and melted in progression. One non melted and on the other end one very melted. I plan to hang them rather high up so that they are looking down/the viewer is looking up at them.

Mounting boards in progress

Wood mounts cut, routed, primed, and painted

One of the cow heads before melting

Cow heads arranged so you can see them all at once. Top one is not melted, bottom right is most melted.

from least melted to most melted

Test hung on wall to make sure everything is sturdy, The closest cow is the most melted.

Ceramic cow. Wax heads

Posting some progress pictures. Got my ceramic cow head back from the kiln.
It turned out differently than I expected. I will post before and after pictures here.
Also got another wax head poured and started to fill in the gaps on my other one.

This is before it went in the kiln. The way I painted on the glaze

Another before shot

After.... The glaze did what it wanted I guess? I kind of like the color but I dont claim to understand how or why.
This is white slip sprayed on with gold plum brushed on in the gas kiln.  It turned out interesting/

I only glazed the mouth and tongue white from what I can ramamber so interesting that it got color. I kind of like it.

The right side of the cows head (left for you if looking straight on) got a lot of weird color variation. Almost a grey/green color.. I am thinking it is just how the glaze ran over the slip but I have no idea really.

Hole in the back. Original thinking was it could hang on a wall. Could also plug it with some wax or something and use it for a vase. haha

COW NOSE!!

from above

another angle

from below

Another angle

I kind of like how shiny it is.

moo.

I cast another under head (core) in plaster so that I could do a second wax head.

Plaster under head after I sanded it and cleaned it up a bit

Sealed it with denatured alcohol and shellac.

after a coat or two of shellac

'

I cut myself a piece of wax to fit for an eyelid on my first wax casting.

After attaching. It still needs some cleaning up but it has its eyelid now at least

I started to patch up the empty spot on the neck. The wax is white when hot. I am hoping it will yellow up to match the rest of the head after a day or so.

A second wax casting of the head. This one over the plaster head core.

Two wax heads and one clay head

Here are the three creepy heads together. Front head is new wax. Right head is old wax (yellows overnight) on top of aluminum and the left is the original clay head.

Wooden Dragon Continued

I used the band saw for a majority of the cutting and then sanded down the parts. The shape of the tail made it particularly hard to cut with the band saw because it would hit the wall and get in the way. This picture is of the head body and tail finally put together. I took a photo with it to show how tall it was getting.

I attached the legs and added feet and claws. I made the feet flat so that it could stand on its own two feet and I added claws to the feet. The claws ended up helping give the dragon a wider footprint and made it more stable. Because I ended up having to make my dragon a lot thinner than I had originally planned he did not have a very wide stance and so the ankles ended up having to attach to the sides of the feet which gave the dragon a bit of a wobble side to side. The claws helped with this and later triangles were added to the ankles for extra support. He can stand on his own pretty well but if he were to be outside in the wind I think I would add an additional pole or something for stability as he could still be knocked over possibly in a large gust.

Once the dragon was all put together I painted on white outdoor primer on him. For any interior parts I felt I could not reach with the brush I used a spray on primer. I then started painting him a cherry red color with some outdoor paint. It took a lot longer to paint the sculpture than I had originally thought it would. The paint also ended up costing a lot more than I expected.

I added touches of black to his horns, tongue, and claws. Here he is after he was finished being painted

Here is a close up of the black trim on his horns and tongue

We had to take the sculptures home by the weekend because they are so big and take up so much space. We did not have a truck and we weren't sure if or how we were going to get it home. Luckily the back seat of my husbands car folds down and we were able to get the dragon in deep enough to be secure. We used straps to hold him in and the trunk closed. I am sure it confused the other drivers on the road.

Once we got it up the stairs I realized how ridiculously huge this sculpture was. I had to take a picture of it on the balcony because I found it kind of funny. It is a little bit big to fit in the apartment and I am hoping to find a more permanent home for it soon.

Some parts of the dragon turned out really well and some parts of the dragon had to be compromised for time. I would have really liked to have made him wider with slats in between his torso and head. I also would have liked to have made the more complex wing design I had decided on which would have made him more 3-D. I also thought about hanging canvas or something from the wings to give them a membrane. Time was not on my side with this project and I simplified it quite a bit to get it done by the deadline.

All of my original measurements were pretty spot on and my initial planning went really well. If I had been more confident with the wood working tools and had more time I think that the dragon could have been just like my plans. As it is I am almost glad that it is not because it would have ended up taking up even more space!

The sculpture has outdoor paint and so it can go outside if it has to some day. I am hoping to find a place to keep it other than my apartment because it is so large.

All things considered I think I learned a lot about working with wood and I feel a lot more comfortable with the tools and process. I think that the next time I work in wood the project will go a lot quicker and smoother and I will know more what to expect.