Sunday 15 February 2015

#609 In the studio: Flexible molds



A flexible mold is the term commonly used for a rubber mold and is the type of mold used by most sculptors today.  

For an in-depth discussion about flexible molds, please go to blog #572,
posted October 8, 2014 and blog #574, posted October 15, 2014.
Blog #572              Blog #574


Flexible molds have a varied longevity or "shelf life" which refers to how long the completed mold will last in years.  
Note: Some sculptors refer to shelf life as "library life" or time in storage.  My molds have been made in the studio by 
Trish for over 25 years and during that time, while using Black-Tuffy, Smooth-on, and other products, we've experienced numerous mold failures or loss of mold usage due to the rubber liquifying and turning to an unusable goo.   
Keep in mind, the possible short shelf life of these products is printed on their labels and after losing
some of our older molds before the edition was cast, we've changed to a newer, more stable product. 




Inexplicably, we have 20 year old molds made from Smooth-on that are still good while some have failed after less than 4 years of use!  Most of the old ones, however have failed.  For the past six years, we've been using a product called Polytek
(see blogs #572 and #574) and so far, have experienced no mold failures.





The sculpture shown below, entitled Takers of the Anasazi Sun was introduced and sold at
 Prix de West in 1994 and another one was cast and consigned to Knox Gallery in Colorado.
The sculpture is listed in the book about my work - Spirit of the Wild Things - The Art of Sandy Scott -
as an edition of 35 but only two were cast before the Smooth-on mold failed after less than 3 years.
The clay model of the work does not exist nor is there a wax replica of the piece in existence.

http://Spirit of the Wild Things




While works such as the sculpture show above will never be cast again, another older work has been given new life.
In 1999, I created a sculpture entitled, Promising Pup.  After only a few castings, the mold failed but a wax replica
of the clay model was retained before the mold had to be discarded.  Last summer, I totally remodeled and
reworked the wax and Trish molded it into a similar but new sculpture entitled, First Season Promise.

Shown below, is First Season Promise in clay and Trish starting the mold.
More about flexible molds in next Wednesday's blog.





Shown below is view #1 of the new bronze, First Season Promise which will be introduced at two upcoming shows:
The Briscoe Museums's Night of the Artists on March 28, 2015 and
The Cheryl Newby Gallery's The Power of Three show which opens April 25, 2015.

More about both shows in upcoming blogs.

http://Night of the Artists

http://Cheryl Newby Gallery.com



First Season Promise
11"H 15"W 9"D



Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.


Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

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