Moldmaking First shot at Moulage Molds

I finally took the time to play with my moulage today. I figured I post here about some of my experiences. There were quite a few pictures taken, but I won't be posting them all here. So if you want to know more, you can check my blog for more indepth details on my experience.

Here is the moulage I bought and how it comes. This is a 5 pound bucket from dickblick.com.


2011-08-20_18-38-36_468 by Mothi03, on Flickr

Here is the moulage cooking.


2011-08-23_18-25-23_150 by Mothi03, on Flickr

Here is a body mold of two part moulage.


2011-08-23_20-16-57_747 by Mothi03, on Flickr

It took a while for the first side of moulage to cool down (maybe 1 hour or more) in the fridge before I could cast the second part. Although moulage does not stick to itself, because it is wet it did stick some. You still have to be careful removing the sides the first time. Afterwards it is easy. But again, since it is a bit wet to the touch, it is slick.

The moulage mold accidentally fell into the wax pot when I was pouring out the excess to make the part hollow. At the time it was housed in a plastruct shell which is also smooth. Although some hot wax splashed onto my hand I did not receive any burns. The pot was not full of wax and was actually getting low, which probably was a blessing.

Something else I learned that is very important regardless of the mold material is....

When working with hot wax, if you pour it onto a cold surface it cools rapidly and does not pour well. On that note...

Here is what happens when you do that in real life.


2011-08-23_22-17-30_882 by Mothi03, on Flickr

I tried to use the same process I use with casting wax in plaster molds when I used the moulage and it doesn't work that way. The molds came out of the fridge not long before casting my first wax copy... BAD idea. I should have warmed the molds.

The great thing about moulage is that even when it doesn't work out, nothing is lost other than some time. But if you learned something in that time, it is not a total loss. I didn't even get plaster molds right for a few tries, so how can I expect to get moulage molds perfect my first shot. I still think moulage is a great material for me to learn to use. Since the moulage is re-useable, I just chop it up and try again another time. Also, the carving wax is re-usable so I can just throw the parts back into the melting pot for my next try. I just love re-useable materials.

Just like any material, there is a learning curve involved and mistakes that are made. I posted on my blog lots of the things I learned today. Plus I got lots more photos there. I just hate uploading them all onto Flickr.

Just This and That

 

I had my second attempt with moulage today. I have to say it went much better. Thank you kwmelvin for your help.

I did a few things different this time and am in the process of making instructions on using moulage to make molds on my blog.

This time I did not refrigerate the moulage mold and used it at room temperature. Last time I poured you could see the pour lines. This time only the first pour of the legs showed signs of pouring problems. The arms did not show any problems at all.

I still failed at cutting it as a one piece mold, but I can improve on that. There were slight imperfections where I cut so it showed up in the pours. Just need more practice.

I finally got the hang of getting them hollow-ish. The arms are too thin to get a good hollow to it.

1. prep leg mold and pour hot wax.
2. wait a few seconds and pour out hot wax from legs
3. place leg mold on counter with wax in it to cool.
4. prep arm mold and pour hot wax.
5. wait a few seconds and pour out hot wax from arms
6. place arm mold on counter with wax in it to cool
7. remove wax legs from mold.
steps 1-3
8. remove wax arms from mold.
steps 4-6
And repeat the bold section.


2011-08-27_00-26-24_284 by Mothi03, on Flickr

Above you can see the legs in progression of the pours. Top left is original set of legs. Top right is the first pour with imperfections. Bottom continues the progression from left to right.

Just need some more practice. But I am sure getting better at it. I will pick 3 of the best pours to keep. One to work on and 2 back-ups. Time to make some joints.