Theobromine's sea serpent silicone tail!

[Mermaid Jessica Pearl]

That nudibranch is the cutest thing! Can't wait to see more of your creations!

[Theobromine]

Thank you! I made a few other nudibranch molds or different species, but the clay was almost impossible to get out of some of the narrower parts of the molds (antennae, gills), so I still have to work on cleaning them out. Plus I still don't have the vibrant colors I need to make realistic nudibranchs, so I just have to revisit them later. I really love making creatures though! I have my master's in zoology so it really appeals to my science nerd side (side? More like self). Anyway, I think it would be really cool to make a whole series of scientifically accurate little sea creatures, cuz not only are they adorable, they'd be really useful for education.

[Aziara]

Having a flexible mold sounds like it would be quite useful. What do you use for a release agent when you pour your silicone?

[Miyu]

Oooh sweet thanks! I'll see what Morticia thinks (she's making my tail). I had wanted smooth skin, but I know that's a huge pain in the fluke, so maybe she'd be up for the idea! I'm think something more along the line of "cobblestone" looking for mine, yours are quite small and do look like a chameleon!

Can't wait to see more of your sea creatures! I adore the realistic, accurate ones to the "toy" ones any day!!!

[Theobromine]

Aziara, I actually haven't been using release agent for most of my test pours. The silicone doesn't bond to the urethane so it pulls away pretty well. I did try using Vaseline on that nudibranch casting, and it pulled out of the mold even better. I think I will do this from now on because it will prolong the mold life. I might try using a spray release at one point, but the Vaseline was cheap :P

Miyu, I actually did seriously consider doing smooth skin like an amphibian for my tail too, it would work really well with my design. But I really just want to something more...detailed. I don't think it would be hard to do a smooth skin mold though. All you'd have to do is get a big roll of that cheap craft foam and cut out the shape of the mold you want. It might be trickier to seam, but then again you could just spread smooth silicone over the seams to hide the join line, and it wouldn't screw up any scale shapes. I really want to see someone try this actually!

Also: just pulled my kelp mold and it came out amazing! Hooray! I have Friday off so I'll probably try to cast it then. I need to get a pour spout for my Dragonskin buckets, though. I bought pour spouts from Lowe's yesterday but they didn't fit the buckets And I'm really afraid of spilling my precious silicone and wasting it. The test silicone I've been using just came in small bottles which I put squeezy tops on like a condiment bottle, so it's really easy to pour. I just wish the Dragonskin came in something easier to pour from.

[PearlieMae]

I love your kelp fronds! I've been working on some but they look like crap. Be careful with putting Dragon Skin into condiment bottles, you have to use plastic that's markedPE (polyethylene). Regular plastic squeeze bottles get eaten by the unmixed silicone, and the whole top will come of while you're squeezing the bottle! I found sports water bottles at Five Below that work great!

[Theobromine]

Thanks for the tip, Pearlie! I might use that for the Dragonskin. I didn't actually put my other silicone into condiment bottles though, it just comes in bottles and I added the caps for easier dispensing. I got the caps at the same place I got the silicone so I knew they were okay. (Also: complimented on my sculpting work by Pearlie Mae, eee!)

Here's a picture of the kelp mold, it came out beautifully and I'm really excited to cast it!

[*Celine*]

wow, this is looking incredible!! keep up the good work!

[Theobromine]

Thanks guys

[deepblue]

*subscribes*

Another great thread to watch. Your stuff all looks so great!

[Theobromine]

Thanks so much for the support, everyone! It really means a lot! And I'll try not to disappoint you guys by posting as many pics as I can!

So for my tail, I still need to get a board on which to do the sculpt. I'm going to try being really ambitious and do the whole thing, fluke and scales, in one piece. This is due to the way my design works....I really want the fluke and scales to blend together in a certain way. But it means I'll need to do a huuuuuuuge sculpt! You guys can help cheer me on (I almost typed kelp cheer me on :P )

I also picked up a respirator today at Home Depot for about 32 bucks. Can't be too careful, silicone and urethane do put out fumes. So far I've done fine with smaller amounts and just having the screen door open and a fan going, but for a huge casting I don't want to risk my health.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Wow!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Lorelei]

-cheers-

[Mermaid Lyra]

Ahhhh!!! I love what you are doing already!! Keep it up!!

[Theobromine]

Thanks everyone!

Ok, well! I finally poured silicone into my kelp mold tonight and I'm waiting for it to finish curing! I wanted to pour it earlier but I was feeling rotten with job stress so I went out to lunch with my parents and talked to them for a long time.

Anyway! Trouble with Dragonskin #1: Those goddamn buckets! First I had to figure out how to even get the lid off, turns out you have to score the lip of the lid with a knife in several places. Ok, not a huge deal, but not something I've read about before.

Trouble with Dragonskin #2: Pouring it out of those goddamn buckets! I got two different types of paint pourers from the hardware store (to make it easier to pour without spilling because there is no pour spout) and neither of them fit. Bugger. I had learned the hard way with my TAP silicone that you have to be really careful pouring goo even out of smaller bottles because it is very easy to make a mess, and I do NOT want to be spilling and wasting my precious silicone. I ended up sacrificing two of my measuring cups so I could just scoop the silicone out of the buckets and pour it into my measuring cups that way. This worked pretty well, I just had to scrape the excess silicone out of the measuring cups and back into their respective buckets, then clean them off. By the way, for cleaning up sticky uncured silicone messes, I use isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle and lots of paper towels.

And my third issue was just that the Dragonskin is a lot more viscous than the TAP silicone I was practicing with. Not a huge deal, I assume it's just because Dragonskin has a higher shore hardness than the TAP stuff (Shore 10A as opposed to 8A, I believe). So while the TAP silicone was like pouring and stirring syrup, the Dragonskin felt almost more like peanut butter. Again, not a huge deal, but will just take a little getting used to working with it. The main problem from this that I wasn't anticipating was that it didn't flow through the mold anywhere near as quickly and easily as the thinner stuff, so I ended up making quite a mess when pouring it as I also had to spread it out, and as the kelp mold is composed mainly of narrow areas, it didn't end up looking pretty. Oh well, I can trim it up later.

I don't know if I will demold it tonight or tomorrow (I have to get up early for work, blahhhh....may start a separate thread for griping about work stress). But for now, here's a picture of the kelp curing while a school of stingrays watch over it.

[Theobromine]

WOOOOOOOO, I pulled it and it came out great! I had extra silicone that I poured into a couple other molds, so I checked them and they were cured. Success!

[Theobromine]

This weekend I will trim the excess silicone from around the edges, maybe paint it a bit to give it some shading, and see about attaching it to a bra. I still have to decide if I want to use silicone for the straps or just use fishing net. Anyway, so for the color of the kelp, I went for a greenish-gold shade, since if you google pictures of Macrocystis pyrifera it seems to be anywhere from green to yellow to brown, and it often seems to depend on the lighting anyway. I didn't want to make it brown. What do you guys think?

[Yulia]

The kelp look so realistic! O:
You did a great job with the color of it.

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

Those kelp strands look gorgeous! Amazing job!
Yeah, I had no idea how to get the buckets open either, ended up having to watch a YouTube video
I found the best way to get the silicone out for relatively small pieces was to use tongue depressors; swirl them around in the bucket and lift out while turning (like you would with honey), then scrape the silicone off on the side of whatever container you're mixing it in. Or, for super small amounts, use a syringe (not with a needle of course), that way you can accurately measure part a and b by volume while getting it out of the container. They're also great for the seaming process. Hope this helps!

[Theobromine]

Syringes!!!! Brilliant, why didn't I think of that?! I did have some tongue depressors for stirring but I ran out. Have to get some more. I definitely like the syringe idea though, thanks for the tip! And the compliments too