Next Assignment for Sculpture I

You will be using silicone putty to make a mold and then you will cast polyester resin in the mold.

Here is a video of the silicone putty (poyo putty).

Assignment:

choose a relatively flat object that has some sort of low relief.  The topography should be similar to the picture frame in the video, but it can be a little deeper.  NOTE: this is not a "repair and old picture frame" assignment.   Choose something that you can make a small sculpture out of.  A pattern of some kind would be ideal.  Plastic and painted metal will work best.  Porous materials like wood, ceramic, bone, etc won't work as well, but you could seal with an acrylic sealer / glaze.

You may also make a small carving in wood.  This is probably the way to go.  The acrylic glaze will make the wood carving suitable.  No larger than 4" x 4" give or take and maybe .5" thick.

You will make several castings from the mold and construct these into a sculpture or attach them to a wooden sculpture.  The polyester is brown, but can be spray painted.  Keep color in mind.

It's hard to make a mold with silicone putty that is flawless.  Keep that in mind when choosing or creating your object.

I suggest that you photograph your proposed subject and post it on the blog.  I can probably tell by the photo whether it will work or not.

The silicone is relatively low toxic, but you might want to get a pair of latex gloves (bookstore).

The polyester resin is very toxic and the fumes should not be breathed.  We will cast outdoors to minimize the fumes, but you should get a valved, paper respirator from home depot.  

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202670465/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053  

They also sell a much nicer reusable one for around $30.  This could be used when spray painting, etc. and works much better than the paper ones do.

This sculpture will be due Oct. 18th.  We will have a critique in the second half of class on that day.