Fixing stuff that glows in the dark

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Normally if I screw up casting something and I have a bubble, I can just fill the hole with a little bit of epoxy clay — it’s not like anyone will know the difference once it’s painted over. However, with the glow in the dark stuff that’s just not an option, so I have to choose to either (a) deal with it and accept that it’s not perfect, (b) throw it away, or (c) use the hole as inspiration to customize it with a little carving. So that’s what I did here. The amulet started just like the masked girl below left (but with a bubble that wrecked the nose), so I carved it into the masked skull on the upper right — I actually think it’s probably an improvement.

These pictures were taken in a room with the lights on by the way — the glow is incredibly strong and is completely visible in normal lit interior spaces after they’ve been exposed to bright light. The reason that the indents (ie. the gaps between the teeth, the eye sockets, etc.) are darker than the raised areas is that the glow pigment particles sunk through the clear plastic as it was curing to collect in greater density along the surface of the face, which was on the bottom because the mold is a simple one-part open-faced mold.

I know I’ve mentioned them before, but I made a big series of these and have loads (almost) ready as either broaches or amulets. After spending every day for the last couple weeks at the park (or the pool), today I finally took a rest day (it being the seventh day and all). That’s not entirely true. We did try to go to the park and to the lake, but literally every parking space was taken so the trip was quite short. We did have a short stop at the High Park zoo, but all the animals were lethargic and hiding in the shade on account of the miserably hot suumers that Toronto has. Tomorrow we’re going to go to the shoe museum, which at first I thought would have zero lines, but then I realized that the gay influx from Pride week might disprove my theory. You may be surprised and/or disturbed to hear it’s not my first visit.

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Transparency Experiments (LED Fingerbulb!)

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Most of the plastics work that I do is with SmoothOn products, with one main exception. When I’m doing stuff that’s transparent, I most like working with a clear polyester casting resin made by “Castin’ Craft”, available at art supply stores for about $30 for a quart. I like it because it’s surprisingly bubble-free for home use without a vacuum pump (and it’s fluid enough that bubbles generally rise out of the resin as it’s curing), and it also demolds in about eight hours. Let me post three things that I’ve made with it recently, starting with this “fingerbulb”. I cast the fingertip in clear resin, and then added a polymer clay holder for a red LED and then painted it all to make it seem like one piece. When you give it power, the fingernail, which is the only unpainted bit, lights up BRIGHT red. Perhaps I should have done more layers of paint, because the light is so strong that it actually leaks right through the sides. Looks pretty neat though. Not sure what project it’s going to be for though.

I made another finger project to see how a two-layer paintjob would work. That is, there’s a first layer that’s mostly red, and then a small section of orange/yellow stripes, with the skin color on top. I was happy to see that it’s quite visible. The trick to getting the fingernail totally glass-transparent was to spray it with a glossy top layer — the same trick that you use to turn frosted glass into something totally transparent.

Finally, I miscalculated how much resin to mix up, so I poured the excess into the original cat mold for Nefarious’s chess set (before the pieces had a base — that is, the original sculpture) and then painted it up as something akin to the Cheshire Cat. It also has glow in the dark eyes.

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Cast Metal Cat-Themed Chess Set (Teaser)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I think I mentioned before that Nefarious and I are working on a chess set. She sculpted the figures (although I helped by doing detailing like carving the hair texture) and I made silicone molds and have been casting the black side in pewter which I have treated with a dark patina, and the white side in clear glass-like polyurethane plastic. I wanted to quickly share how the figures are looking right now. They have not yet been cleaned up so they look a bit “rusted” and the plastic hasn’t been trimmed. I am thrilled with how the metal ones look especially, and they feel great in your hand too with a nice heft (about a half pound each I think).

P.S. I hope it amuses you that the bishop (left one in the bottom row) is the “fish”-op. Har har.

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Park Time, Bigtime

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I think I’ve mentioned before that in Toronto, only 3% of school age girls (as in K through 12) are getting enough physical activity, which is defined as an hour of activity per day. As such, I go to great effort to ensure that Nefarious gets that, and now that school is out we have been spending as much time as possible at the park. After all, I can read at the park just as easily as I can do it here, and the fresh air is good for me. I suspect that even if I am not sure that I’m up to it, I am better off resting in the shade in fresh air than trying to sleep in a sweltering studio. So there has been lots of playground, even more hiking through the many forest trails, and now that the pool is open, at least an hour a day of swimming.

Let me start with some public art we found. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the hippies having a vegan picnic nearby, but these two guerrilla “installations” were behind a sign reading, if I remember correctly, “Stop and Smell the Fungi”.

Also on that particular walk, and for the second time in as many days after not having seen one at High Park ever, we found a snake sunning itself on the path. The first one escaped us in the tall grass, but this one was in the forest and did not have as quick access to cover and we managed to catch him. Nefarious was a little nervous about getting bitten but held him and got to feel his frightened muscular twirling and constricting. Of course released a few moments later none the worse for wear.

Nefarious is always catching animals at the park. Caterpillars are a particular favorite and she always begs to take them home, a request that has so far been denied. I may have mentioned this previously, but I did however recently let her take home a frog for the night. She made a nice little home for him to stay in and caught bugs for him to eat and left him water and treats. When we released him the next day he was not entirely eager to wander off! Domesticated in a night. The power of strawberries maybe.

Then of course there are also the classics like tree climbing.

Unfortunately, and as amusing as it may or may not be, I have to be vigilant when taking photos. It’s been made far worse by going to water skiing camp for the past four weekends (which sounds like it was a ton of fun) and listening to all the older kids swearing and so on, but she sure does like rude gestures. Of course, it’s worse when she’s behind the shutter of her own camera, which I was mortified to discover is filled with a great many surreptitiously taken pictures of my butt-crack, explaining the giggling that I often hear from behind me when I bend over.

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Getting Fingered

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I have a gazillion plastic toes and fingers lying around because I often pour left over excess plastic (which must be used within a few minutes once it’s mixed). When I am bored or, let’s say, avoiding some other project, I mount magnets or pins or something other things, and give them silly paint jobs. For example, a couple of odd and slightly grotesque toes (the little and the big) that are now fridge magnets. They really looked horrid before they were painted.

On this one I cast three thumbtacks into it, so it has a nice, solid, and non-spinny corkboard adherence. Next to it you can see a Littlest Pet Shop face that’s also a tack.

Finally, on this finger I cast a rope into the plastic. I’m not really sure why I did that because I have no coherent plan for how to use it. It’s been coated with automotive exhaust clearcoat so it has a nice indestructible coat and should at least be difficult to scuff. I made the “flesh” parts by carving it a little with a pocket knife. I did the carving right after demolding it, so the plastic was still soft and especially easy to work with.

Caitlin has also painted a few of these — hopefully she posts the ones she made because they’re much nicer. Hers are a collection of little figurines rather than just abstract paintjobs.

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