Finished work on a new and improved mold making tutorial.
Latex mold making: Skulls on the Cheap
The old one had most of it’s pictures lost due to an older host, so new and improved, with several years worth of insights added as well as tips on coloring skulls for blacklight use.
Oops.
Back when Kyle was selling skulls, we made a few skulls in ‘crystal’, corresponding with the release of the new Indiana Jones movie, it seemed natural.
However, there is some technical issues with using acrylic, and we only were able to make about 10. So, we wanted another ‘premium’ skull to offer for the store.
Enter the larger skulls…
Except…the initial plan to make solid plaster skulls is taking a LOT of plaster…and the mold was made ‘backwards’ for making them hollow…
What to do?
Anyone want a pencil holder?
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| From 2011 buildup |
Several years ago, Kyle come home with this rather annoying project: Build something to sell in school for phony money. At the time, our house was all about skulls, with a goal of ‘100 skulls’ for the yard (which somehow turned into over 300…), and so Kyle wanted to make some for school as well. That project spawned our first tutorial on how to make molds.
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| From Molds |
And Talia was such a wee one at the time…
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| From Molds |
Well, that project has cropped up again. Where Kyle decided to make skulls because that’s what was going on in the house at the time, Alec wants to make them because Kyle’s business was so successful, bringing home all kinds of loot from the auction…
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| From Molds |
So, our house is once again turned into a skull factory. With any luck, Alec will prove once again, Halloween items hold their own even in the spring.
It also seems this environment of skulls has gotten into Talia’s blood, as she made me “a scary Bob monster!” (Bob, of course, is our paper mache skeleton, since creating, ALL skeletons are ‘Bob’ in Talia’s eyes)
Just think…we’ll probably be making MORE skulls in a few years…
So, just to recap…
We have the armor project ongoing. Not a lot of new stuff to show there, just lots of boring technical stuff. Chest and shoulders done, both legs are getting close, had to start over on the arms, so only one is close. We just bought some nice buttons to attach the shoulder pieces, and will have some nice visual improvements in the next week or so.
Meanwhile, Talia’s pinata is all but done in construction. It’s stuffed with prizes, and the final coat (covering the hole and adding the string and legs) is drying now. One really crappy unicorn will need some paint soon.
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| From 2011 buildup |
We have started making a mold for Alec’s NEXT school project: Mini society. He has decided to sell what made Kyle so much money. Skulls.
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| From 2011 buildup |
We’re collecting wood for the Bridge of Death. Call us if you need any cleaned up!
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| From Bridge of Death |
And, by demand, some more pics of the concept and area.
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| From Bridge of Death |
(this one looks familiar…)
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| From Bridge of Death |
Interesting gate.
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| From Bridge of Death |
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| From Bridge of Death |
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| From Bridge of Death |
I’ve been getting some requests for better pics of the crystal skull, tripod enabled.
My pleasure.
Here we have it catching the light from the window.
From another angle.
From the back, you can see the tiny seem I still haven’t got around to trimming off.
Then, people have asked for some lighting tests on it. Well, here is a tiny battery operated color changing LED tea light. Let’s see how it pictures when I shut myself in the laundry room and stick the skull in front of that.
It reflects the red really well.
But I think I like the blueish color better.
Then, this orange/yellow is pretty cool too.
Of course, most likely I’ll be using firelight. And, it catches light from quite a distance. But, angle seems to be the important variable. Here from well away and below the skull.
Not an optimal angle, but still catching the light just fine.
Very shortly, I will be posting a ‘how to make your own crystal skull’. I’ll warn you up front, this is not the easiest, or cheapest of projects. And it carries some dangers along with it. Poisonous fumes, chemical burns, and more standard burns. So, common sense and proper plans and all that.
