From: Greg Ballora <gregballora-AT-sbcglobal.net>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 17:02:35 -0800
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Molding oil-clay sculpt Questions


Seems like a three piece mold would help you out. two for front of 
face, parting in the center, and parting from the third piece around 
the ears.  Later this will allow you to assemble the front two pieces 
of the mold and lay up some layers right over the center front seam, 
which is so critical. I am not an expert on Papier Mache though, so 
maybe there are reasons not to do this that I don't know. I don't see 
why you need an acrylic sealer on the chavant, but it won't hurt. Since 
this isn't an absorbtion mold, you just don't have to be that finicky. 
As to controlling the placement of the plaster parting lines, I still 
vote strongly for a water clay walls, but we have gone down this road 
before.....

Greg Ballora


On Mar 2, 2007, at 2:09 PM, Mathieu René wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> I'm getting ready to mold a Polichinelle hand puppet head. 
> Polichinelle is/was the French version of Punch 9before Guignol took 
> over his Kingdom) , but my version (for my customer) is very close to 
> the English Punch.
>
> Which forces me to mold his head in two parts, because of the way his 
> nose and chin form a crescent in profile. I can get away with some 
> undercuts because my paper strips are a bit flexible before the end of 
> the 48 hour drying period, but these undercuts are too much, I fear. 
> And I can't risk it this time.
> To my great frustration, this forces me to make the separation line 
> for the two-part mold in the middle of the face. Lots of time is lost 
> in reducing the final joint line. This will be a paper mache strips 
> head, virtually indestructible (beyound regular wear and tear) as is 
> my usual standard. But this makes it much harder than just trimming a 
> flash line in a single pour plastic or plaster cast.
>
> Of course, had I the budget, I would stop fiddling with plaster for 
> this and jump on the silicone bandwagon (Rebound 25 from Smooth-On 
> would be my choice), but for now, I must keep with a hard plaster 
> mold.
>
> My oil-based clay right now is Chavant NSP (sulphur free).
>
> My main questions are:
>
> -Will sealing the plastalina with an acrylic sealer require me to use 
> a release agent on top of it?
>  (usually, I just pour the plaster directly on the oil-based clay. No 
> need for more release, but now I think I want my mold even smoother, 
> and I was told that an acrylic sealer does that.
>
> --To the person who reccomend me to just pour plaster in the box (and 
> aroundt the sculpt) halfway, how do I make the plaster follow the 
> silhouette of the ear, where my  separation line will be?
>
> I'm making supper (need energy) before I start plastering the whole 
> studio (I want to try throwing the plaster as I've seen a few people 
> do). So if I can get a few answers before I start the mold, that's 
> great. If not, they will still be most useful for my next moldmaking 
> project.
>
> As usual, thanks a lot for any pointers.
>
>
>
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