Tag: sculpture

How To Make One-Part Molds with ComposiMold and ImPRESSive Putty

Posted on by Celia

Mold making is the process used to duplicate three dimensional models. Through the use of a mold making material, a negative of a model part is made. That negative can be used to cast a second part that is identical to the original part in size and shape. The same mold can be used to make duplicates of the original Master parts. Check out the two videos below that show how to make one-part molds using ComposiMold Reusable Molding Material and/or ImPRESSive Putty, which are re-usable molds. You can re-melt and re-use as many times as you want as long as you don’t overheat the mold making material (boil it too many times). There’s no better product for making molds without wasting molding materials and getting great results.

One-Part Molds with ComposiMold

One part mold making is used when your part has a flat surface on one side such as a relief sculpture. Anything that can stand up on it’s own can be molded using the one part molding process. The process becomes very simple, especially with ComposiMold because you don’t have any mixing or weighing. Select a mold box that your part will fit into with at least a 1/2 inch around the sides. Plastic cups, bowls, even aluminum foil works well for the mold box.

  1. If you part is lightweight (such as a plastic toy) hot glue or use a tape dot to hold your Master down in your mold box.
  2. Spray your part/Master with mold release.
  3. Spray liberally with Bubble Buster to reduce surface tension.
  4. Melt the ComposiMold as described in the included instructions. You don’t need to melt everything, just what you need.
  5. Let the ComposiMold cool to solidify. Place in the refrigerator or freezer to cool faster
  6. Pull the mold from your mold box and pull out your Master from the bottom of the ComposiMold
  7. Pour or press in your casting material
  8. ComposiMold is a remeltable rubber, so when finished with that mold you can remelt it to make a New mold.

 The depth of the part does not have to be shallow. For example candle molds are typically long and narrow, but can still be molded using the simple process for one part molds.

The casting material is poured or pressed into the mold indentation. Mold sizes can range from a few millimeters to many feet in size. 

Mold making is used  to make duplicates of a wide variety of creations ranging from car parts to Christmas ornaments. Why you would want to make your own molds depends a lot on what you are making. The mold can then be filled with casting materials of your choice. For example, many cake decorators or chocolate makers use molds to create unique shapes from their chocolates or use molds to shape fondant into special shapes. Home soap and candle makers enjoy duplicating unique shapes and designs that cannot be found.

One-Part Mold with ImPRESSIVE Putty

ImPRESSive Putty allows you to make molds without a mold box, fast and easily.

Next time we’ll show you how to make Brush-on Molds, Push and Cut Block Molds, then Two-Part Molds using both ComposiMold and ImPRESSive Putty.

S.C. Mero in the LA Times

Posted on by Celia

Did you catch our blog post from a week ago hipping you to S.C. Mero’s exhibition at the LA Art Show? The day after the L.A. Art Show closed, Mero took Deborah Vankin from The LA Times on a tour of her street sculptures and Vankin wrote it up:

“The cone was part of Mero’s eight-piece solo exhibition presented by Art Share L.A., a nonprofit supporting emerging local artists. Mero’s public art installations, which she’s been making since she graduated from USC in 2011, typically dot the sidewalks of downtown L.A.’s Arts District, where Art Share L.A. is based. The conceptual sculptures employ humor to shed light on pressing urban issues such as gentrification, drug addiction and homelessness.”

“I just love how Sarah directs a lens onto dire societal issues,” said Art Share L.A. Executive Director Cheyanne Sauter. “But she relies so much on the accidental audience, and I wanted to make that more intentional by bringing her there.”

If you missed her show, we recommend you take a self-guided tour of S.C. Mero‘s street art, the locations are listed in the LA Times article.

Ai Weiwei: LIFE CYCLE at Marciano Art Foundation

Posted on by Celia

If you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, we highly recommend you see Ai Weiwei: LIFE CYCLE at Marciano Art Foundation (through March 3, 2019).

Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds, 2010 (detail).

This exhibition is Ai’s first major institutional exhibition in Los Angeles and The Marciano Art Foundation will feature the new and unseen work Life Cycle (2018) – a sculptural response to the global refugee crisis. The exhibition will also present iconic installations Sunflower Seeds (2010) and Spouts (2015) within the Foundation’s Theater Gallery.

On view for the first time in the Black Box, Life Cycle (2018) references the artist’s 2017 monumental sculpture Law of the Journey, Ai’s response to the global refugee crisis, which used inflatable, black PVC rubber to depict the makeshift boats used to reach Europe. In this new iteration, Life Cycle depicts an inflatable boat through the technique used in traditional Chinese kite-making, exchanging the PVC rubber for bamboo.

This multifaceted installation is a continuation of Ai’s ongoing engagement with politics and social justice. It follows the release of his feature-length documentary, Human Flow (2017), which depicts the refugee crisis on film. In the artist’s op-ed for the Guardian in February 2018, he writes, “I was a child refugee. I know how it feels to live in a camp, robbed of my humanity. Refugees must be seen as an essential part of our shared humanity.”