Making a silicone mold of gauze…. FAIL

Tue, Sep 23, 2008

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I think I’ll post my failures as well as my successes. Here’s a tip that you can file under “Had to learn the hard way…” The character I’m sculpting has a fabric over his eyes, so i thought I’d skip a step and just make a mold of his head with a thick piece of gauze around his head.

Bad idea. Silicone, as we all know, goes into every little hole, so a pourous fabrice like gauze is a bad idea. The silicone pretty much enveloped the guaze. The only plus side is that I was making a waste mold, and the head was perfect, just minus the cloth look over his eye. Maybe this is the Sculpting Gods telling me not to take shortcuts and just sculpt the darn fabric myself. I need the practice anway.

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- who has written 22 posts on Mantle Studios.

Jason is the Art Director for MAKE Magazine by day. By night, he sculpts both traditionally and digitally.

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  • Chris

    Hi, Jason,

    Why didn’t you brush some epoxy on the piece of fabric, similar to fiberglass and then wrap it around the head after your waste mold was made, as that way you would have a perfect head in case the look was not what you wanted. Then with re: to the fabric detail, which would be hardened, it would have the desired effect of fabric, but not be porous. Just a suggestion.

    Keep up the great sculpting. Can I ask what game studio you work for? Hope you are working on a fun project at the day job and looking forward to more of your after work adventures in sculpting.

    Cheers-
    Chris

  • http://www.mantlestudios.com Jason Babler

    Hey Chris! That is a great idea, it would allow me to make another mold of it if I do like the effect. Thanks for the tip.

    I used to work for Mindfuse Games, but I just started a small iPhone development company called Frozen Giant.

    Thanks for the feedback!