A 100th Post and a Miniature Give Away

I can't believe I've reached 100 posts! Anyone that knows me well knows how much I hate typing.

If it wasn't for the dreaded keyboard I'd probably be a much more prolific blogger. Anyway to celebrate my 100th milestone I'd like to do my first give away. It is of a dog I sculpted.

I had a plaster mold made and cast up a limited edition of 15 of the dogs in Dresden flesh porcelain. This is one of the remaining two dogs I have left.

All one of my followers need do is leave a comment to this post and I'll pick a random winner on June 24th.The dog measures 2 1/4" high. A little history on the dog. I used to add it to miniature work I was doing at the time. One such piece was titled Home For The Holidays.

The little hobo violinist and most everything else was sculpted of royal porcelain clay. Everything in the scene was handmade by me except the cast dog, and the tree -- though I did make the tree ornaments.

I really liked that sculpture but unfortunately I wouldn't have it for long.

We had a family friend who used to do street fairs and trade shows. She was unable to get a booth at a local fair because her merchandise was mass produced. She asked if she could borrow a few of my sculptures to display so she could obtain a booth. I was happy to do it for her. I lent her three pieces. One of them being Home For The Holidays. The Monday after the show I phoned and asked for my work back. She kept putting me off and putting me off. Finally I had enough showed up at her door and she admitted Home For The Holidays was among the missing.

It had disappeared from her storage unit. I guess I should be flattered. The thief had good taste. That was the last time I ever let any of my work out of my sight without something in writing.

One Nasty Little Guy

This weekend I sculpted this little guy with a bad attitude named Damek. He is 6" tall and sculpted out of polymer clay and Apoxie clay.

He is a real stinker and likes nothing better than stalking the forest with his hawk terrorizing the small game and gnomes.

The Finished Stegosaurus Sculpture

The final painting on the sculpture was done by dry brushing to accent the plates and scale work.

A dark wash was applied over the stegosaurus to tie the colors together and bring out the texture of the scales.

Stegosaurus Sculpture

The stego's legs were padded out in aluminum foil over which Super Sculpey was modeled. In this photo I am adding the toes to the front foot.

The legs were then attached to the body using Zap A Gap glue. I installed the eyes and at that point I began covering the entire stegosaurus in thin applications of Apoxie Sculpt clay.

Casting Kong's Head

After I finished building up the latex rubber mold to about an 1/8" thick I made a mother mold. A mother mold is made of a rigid material and supports the flexible latex mold while it is being cast to prevent distortion. For this piece I used plaster of Paris and strips of burlap to make the mother mold.

The casting material I used is called Polytranspar Liquid Cast. It is a two component product which requires mixing together equal amounts of Part A and Part B. The reason I like it is because it sets up within 3 minutes, has little odor and can be removed from the mold in a short time.

I sprayed the inside of the two mold halves with a light coat of mold release and clamped the mold together. After mixing the Polytranspar liquid cast I slowly poured it into the mold trying to avoid causing air bubbles. When I had poured about 8 oz. into the mold I began to rotate the mold by hand to make sure all the surfaces of the mold were evenly covered. I continued doing this for several minutes till the material set up.

Here is a picture of Kong's head fresh from the mold and ready to be cleaned of the flashing left on the casting from the mold seam. Next post I'll get down to installing some teeth in Kong.