Well holy crap! Since I've gotten back to work on this piece the followers on Instagram has almost doubled! Now go and make ye fishers of men! But seriously, the interest people have shown along with the complements they have posted has really geared me up to finish this piece. Plus, who would have thought that Instagram would be such a helpful resource. The Tyrannosaurus had been put aside so that I could finish a couple other projects: the Triceratops doorknocker for David's new home, some Steampunkey bugs, and a human heart pendant. While on the shelf, this dinosaur became very intimidating and it'd seriously still be sitting there today if it weren't for some friends and Instagrammars asking me about it. It just goes to show, what a profound effect just a little bit of free encouragement can do. The last time I blogged about this piece was back...
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David. David who? David who just bought my first functional triceratops door knocker! Ain't that cool? Thanks David. He contacted me a couple weeks ago about the knocker. The Triceratops is his favorite dinosaur and he was excited to see my beginning attempt at a triceratops door knocker. I was scared to mold it myself though, I didn't want to risk destroying ANOTHER piece. Also, it's a knocker, getting banged around is it's primary function... it had to be done right or it would just fall apart. I looked into having it professionally molded and cast which turns out to be a pricey endeavor. In turn, for me to make a profit, I would have to sell a product at a price that I myself could not afford and that just doesn't jive. So, although mold making is scary and terribly messy (it's SO messy) the most cost effective thing...
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If this weekend was a bad weekend for casting from newly made molds - nobody told me! I lined em up, sprayed 'em down, filled 'em up, and popped out a few pieces. It's a bit more involved than that, but you get the idea. What we have here are the 3-part-molds for the top and bottom of Amy's lighter case. The orange colored ones are the 2-part mold for the Rook, and the little ones in the upper-right hand corner are for the Pawn. You may have noticed the use of dominoes in one of my other mold making tutorials. I don't know why I have so many of them but, I use them to help build-up a level wall around the piece. Otherwise I'd just have gobs of clay all around it. The mold for the second half of the lighter case goes just like the first half except BETTER! As you...
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I'm spent some time testing the molds I made... As you may recall, the blue 3-part mold had not come out as well as I'd hoped, so I was very interested to find out what it would make. I have yet to complete the mold for the second half of the lighter case, so I still can't say with certainty what went wrong, but I hope to have answers on Monday. The 2-part mold of the Rook came out as planned, so I am more confident - knock on wood - that casting it will go smoothly. Otherwise, I've been brainstorming on creating a base for all the individual chess pieces. Something simple, I'm thinking a little wooden "puck" with a felt bottom. I've been poking around the interweb trying to find something like that. Ultimately, I suppose I could buy a wooden dowel and slice it into half or quarter inch...
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