Julie Bishop imortalised for posterity:)

Taking a look at our new bunch of unlovely politicians, I decided that, apart from Tony, the ones who show the most promise as subjects for caricature are Julie Bishop and Clive Palmer (assuming he gets in on the Nth recount as seems likely). I'll leave labour until they decide who's who, for now anyway!

I decided to start with Julie Bishop by making a silicon mould similar to the one I made of Barry in the previous post. Here is the finished mould opened up slightly so you can see the thickness of the wall.

 

 

 I made it by encasing the model with an outer wall of plasticine to minimise the amount of silicon rubber required, pouring the silicon as a one piece mould and then cutting it up the back to release the model and subsequent casts. This is the easiest way of making a silicon mould although it is expensive in terms of the amount of rubber used as the walls have to be thicker than if they were  backed with a plaster mother mould which is the more conventional way silicon moulds are constructed. This technique requires an awful lot of work but it can be scaled up pretty much  infinitely whereas my technique can only be used for small moulds.

 

And here is the mould closed and strapped shut ready for the cast to be poured, the other way up of course!

 

 

And finally, here is my first take on Julie! 

 

 

 

This time I poured the foam directly into the mould but, instead of dipping it in latex to get a latex skin covering the foam like last time, I decided to try painting on the latex/acrylic paint mixture directly. Although successful to a degree, it wasn't nearly as successful as painting over a latex skin. Basically dipping the model in latex seems to fill up all the little surface craters in the foam in a way which brushing the stuff on doesn't. Since I don't have enough latex at home at the moment to dip the model, I might try brushing on a couple of coats of pure latex on the next attempt before attempting to colour it.

 

At least the most expensive part of the exercise, the silicon mould, has been successfully completed. Compared to the cost of that, the foam is comparatively cheap. Just over A$80 for 2.9 litres but it expands up to eight times that in volume. That's a lot of foam!

 

I was using  S-FOAM, again from Barnes,  which comes in different degrees of stiffness. S-FOAM 60, which I was using, is at the more flexible end of the spectrum so I think it is possible that the firmer varieties may have less surface craters. I have seen pieces cast in foam with much smoother surfaces than I am getting so I guess I'll just have to try it and see unless anyone out there knows the answer. If so, please don't hesitate to add a comment.

More experiments with flexible materials!

Flushed with the success of my lightweight Barry O'farrell caricature (2 posts ago), I cast a foam version from a flexible mould in silicon rubber that I made some time ago.  The silicon I used was Pinkysil from Barnes, amazing stuff but very expensive! Partially because of the cost of the silicon, this head is much smaller than life size. However another other reason for the smaller size is that Pinkysil, being  an addition-curing silicon, cannot be used directly with water based clay so I was using a form of plasticine to make the model and was limited by the amount that I had, as modelling plasticine, like silicon rubber, is quite expensive although it is reusable. Nothing about this flexible modelling business is cheap:(   You can get in again, from Barnes.  I was lucky however, and was given a present of a large chunk of pre used stuff (I like to  think that it may have been part of an ANZAC figure in its previous life! Thanks Alan!).

A word of warning, cheap plasticine very often gives off sulphur vapour which can prevent the silicon from curing. I found this out to my cost, fortunately with a very small mould, ending up, not with a firm flexible mould but a sticky pink mess:(  So, if in doubt, test on a small piece!

Previously I had been using this mould to make casts in plaster, not light I know but very cheap. I have been using these to test out different finishes and patinas. This is my favourite finish to date. I used Porter's Paint's Liquid Iron and instant rust to get the look of old metal.

 

And here he is in flexible foam!

 

 

Because silicon rubber is non absorbent, it cannot be used to slip cast a latex skin so I created the foam core first by pouring the foam directly into the mould and, once it had cured (about an hour), removed it from the mould and created the latex skin by dipping it in latex. Finally it was painted in a 50 : 50 acrylic paint / latex mix as before. 

 

 

David Rowe's Exhibition

Visited David Rowe's exhibition at Ray Hughes Gallery  yesterday. It was absolutely brilliant. I only realised that it was on when browsing some of his Facebook photos and came across this flyer.

It is definitely worth a visit for those of us who enjoy a politically correct free zone:) But you only have until this Wednesday, 2nd October, to get there.

New technique!

Not a new subject, I admit! It's Barry O'Farrell again, pre diet, our beloved leader - not! But the technique is completely new.

I have been getting increasing frustrated by the weight of ceramic sculptures of any size and the lead time involved in making and firing them, particularly in our political climate! So here is my first lightweight sculpture....................

 

Although he's similar to the Barry who featured earlier in this blog, they are both approximately life size, this one weighs in at a fraction of the weight, at only a couple of ounces!

 

He originated as a clay model from which I made a two piece plaster mould which I used to slip cast a latex  skin which was then filled with flexible foam. I used S-foam from Barnes. Amazing stuff!  Finally he was painted using ordinary acrylic paint mixed 50 : 50 with liquid latex. This proved quite successful and much cheaper than buying special flexible paint. The only disadvantage is that, as the liquid latex is an opaque white but dries a darker beige colour, it was a bit difficult gauging the finished colours. Next time I will have a better idea of what to expect.

 

And the other advantage of this technique! I have a reusable mould that I can use to churn out multiple copies. Not that I want  multiple versions of Barry around the place you understand, but I'm sure that they could come in useful in other places:) Somewhere in Wahroonga springs to mind! And, luckily it's just down the road!

 

Hornsby Art Prize 2013

I have just uploaded my entry for the Hornsby Art Prize, "The Tyranny of Fashion 2". Isn't she beautiful? Well maybe beautiful isn't exactly the right word!

 

The man of the moment!

Yes, Tony Abbott! I know he's appeared elsewhere in this blog but never "unencumbered", for want of a better word. In view of his leading the most crushing defeat of the Labour party for about 100 years, at least that's what I heard on the radio today, I felt he deserved a post all to himself:)

Goodbye!

Well I've been occupied with setting up my Facebook page so I didn't get around to posting my latest ceramic caricatures before the election. Since they are now history, I promise this will be, in some cases the first, but also definitely the last appearance of Julia, Kevin 07 and Bob Carr in these pages.

 

Julia as the Red Queen. I didn't even get a chance to finish her, let alone exhibit her before she was history. Originally the crown was going to be glued on her head but now it seems more appropriate at her feet beside the dagger which stabbed her in the back. I added that touch at the time of the Simon Crean takeover bid but now I'm thinking of putting it in Kevin 07's hand.

 

Kevin 07! No further explanation necessary!

 

Bob Carr as the Joker. Quite appropriate don't you think. One friend of mine proceeded to number the Senate candidates in yesterdays election the full  1 to 110 just for the satisfaction of putting Bob Carr last. Unfortunately however we haven't completely got rid of him, like the last two, and he does have a nasty way of resurfacing.........!

Now on Facebook

I have finally get around to setting up a Facebook page for my ceramics. If you would like to see my latest works (about to be obsoleted by the election this Saturday!), please visit Rona Sissons' Ceramics on Facebook. You do not have to join Facebook to view my page.