Choosing a mould making technique

[barneyjoseph]

Hi,

I've been trying out mould making with silicone and casting into resin. I've been seeing a lot of techniques for moulding or mould making.

1.The one I found in pop sculpture is to make "gates", pour in the silicone and cut out based on a parting line.

2. Then there's the silicone glove moulding with a plaster of paris/ultracal structure or mother mould.

3. There's also a lot of tutorials on two part moulding

4. I saw a few tutorials about using the matrix mould technique.

If there are other ways then I'd like to learn more!

My question is: How does one decide which mould making technique to use? For eg: "is matrix mould making used for only large bulky statues?"

Please do share your thoughts. I've tried searching the forum and couldn't find anything. This might also sound like a comparison of mould making techniques!

God bless you. Thanks in advance

[barneyjoseph]

Anybody?

[secretasianman]

Try checking on youtube. there are several videos on mold making. Hope it helps.

[barneyjoseph]

I've done that... I was wondering if there was a particular statue size correlation to the techniques

[rgm501]

I've made a few molds in my time and like you I wanted to find the best way/method to go about it.
The best answer I can give, is this it really depends on the piece you wanna cast and your situation.
I quickly learnt that molding and casting is very expensive, so price really factors in for me.
Certain methods/types of molds are more expensive than others.
But if price isn't a problem, I would always go with the 2 part mold.

[barneyjoseph]

Thanks rgm501 for the reply!

I hope you don't mind giving your opinion on this. Here's how my statue looks like:

Here's how it is split:

How would you go about moulding this? Would you prefer to pour silicone over each part and then cut it out? Or the two part approach? And yes, money is an issue!


I tried pouring silicone over each part for this wedding cake topper that I had made and cut open one side. But it was extremely hard to get one without air bubbles.

In the case of the tiny arms, air bubbles caused a lot of problems that I would get only a little of the palms and the shoulders! After reading POP Sculpture, I've learnt that I have to gate the parts.

I would like to learn more before I spend quite a lot of money for the 7.5 inches tall Wonder Woman.
Thanks a lot!

[rgm501]

yeah a 2 piece mold will work on you wonder women sculpt.
yes gates or air channels are very important, you have to think about where the air is going to be trapped and plan you gates carefully.
a 2 piece mold will let you do that.

the method of pouring silicone over each part then cutting the molds open should only be used if you have a decompression chamber, otherwise your cast will be full of air bubbles.

another way of getting around air bubble in general, is to pre-pour your mold.
this is when you fill/pour all the troublesome parts of the mold with resin, while the mold is open.
then when the resin is half cured (semi set) you put the 2 pieces of the mold together and pour the rest.
pre-pouring your molds can cut down the amount of gates/air channels needed.

[rgm501]

for more pics of how i made this mold check out my evil ryu bust thread http://www.statueforum.com/showthrea...ht=evil&page=2

[barneyjoseph]

Thank you