casting parts

Some people have asked me about how I do eyes & noses, so here's a little sneak peek! First up: Noses!

I start with a paper clay sculpture. Paperclay is cheap, dries (relatively) quickly, around 4-5 hours on a dry day, and is pretty forgiving as far as correcting imperfections with sanding etc. For this nose I wanted something toony, but still 'pebbly' textured. Somewhere between a realistic dog nose and something off Pluto.

Then I mount the paperclay to board & spray with a release agent. I like using an acrylic sheet because I can stick dams of sculpting plasticine to it and get a liquid tight seal. This time I used lego blocks to build a box around the nose, filling the gaps with plasticine. I ended up lining the box with a plastic baggy because I hate cleaning up leaky casts!
One tip for pouring your molding material; pour high! It prevents air bubbles from developing in the molding material. See TapPlastic's website for excellent casting/mold making techniques & products!

Once the molding material cures, peel the acrylic backing off the mold, and out pops the paperclay sculpture!

I trimmed the extra bits off the mold, popped it back into it's support lego box, and then poured my cast material in. For this nose I used a semi-hard polyurethane tinted with black pigment.

It's squishy, soft to the touch, and people seem to like to beep it!

big baby dragon

Big blue dragon baby. I think he's become my new traveling mascot, yay!

pattern pieces

In addition to large-scale projects, I've been working on a customized teddy bear pattern. What started off as a simple 10 piece project quickly spiraled into a 24" monster of innumerable seams and pieces. I think the latest count was something like 74 individual pieces in 6 different materials. Whew!

I should really get around to attaching his head, hmm.

accessories

Quick project I finished ages ago of a dragon tail. The material is actually an upholstery fabric, with foam backing. Amazing stuff. The scale pattern is really lovely, and it's soft & stretchy. None of the stiffness of vinyl or faux leather reptile pattern fabric. The horns are a very rigid 'plasticky' material, makes some tough horns indeed!

Working on a matching set of ears & head horns for this outfit.

cutting foam

One of the most useful tools in a costume builder's arsenal is the band saw. That, and an at-home scissor sharpener tool. It's amazing how quickly foam will dull a blade!

Makes cutting out curly tails a lot easier!

needle felting

Occasionally I'll get an itch to work on something totally different mid-project.

Needle felting is a lot of fun, if slightly dangerous. Those barbed needles are sharp!

Start of 2011

Start of the new year, start of some new fun projects!

For Further Confusion 2011, I'm building a brand new costume; my first puppy dog!

The fur was an amazing find. Super luxurious soft mid-length pile, in two-tone! It shaves very nicely, still retains a silky feeling, and seems to resist creasing/crimping no matter what torture the testing crew put it through. It's always pleasant to work with really quality materials. I bought miles of it, after doing such a great job haggling, so there might be a small flock of puppies romping about eventually.

Of course, the studio is absolutely a mess of muslin & fur & foam. But in the chaos, new life emerges! Exciting, woof!