Here is the first casting, and hooray, there appears to be no air bubbles inside.
The curved surface isn’t great, but was no more than expected considering it was moulded from a clay plug. It will need a bit work using very fine wet and dry sandpaper followed by polishing with a cutting compound to bring it up to the glass clear surface I need. If I’d been able to find an item as the plug that had a polished surface then that is how the cast would have come out because the silicone rubber mould matches the plug’s surface exactly.
However, I’m really pleased with the way it’s come out and very excited now.
The mould has turned out really well with no real signs of air bubbles on surface to be cast with resin.
Ready to make the first casting of my ‘large water droplet’ and again as with the silicone rubber, the polyester resin and catalyst has to mixed in precise quantities. The catalyst is added at 1% of the amount of resin used. In this case 2ooml of resin was used so there was just 2ml of catalyst. Any more catalyst and the resin may overheat and therefore discolour and/or crack.
Had to be careful mixing the 2 parts to avoid bubbles, but thankfully these materials both have low viscosity, so that should help.
I have on a couple of occasions began think have I bitten off more I can chew with what I’m doing, especially considering a lot of what I’m doing is new territory for me creatively. However, this is all very exciting and I’m really beginning to enjoy every part of the creative processes I’m undertaking. Plus, I have a lot of determination in every thing I do, so having set my concept into action, it’s full steam ahead to fulfill the ideas I have for my degree show.
Resin mixed and poured into the mould.
After about an hour the resin has already set, however left it a while longer before demoulding.
I’m using a 2 part addition cure RTV (room temperature vulcanization) silicone rubber that gives a flexible yet tough and reusable mould. The process starts by accurately measuring then mixing the silicone base material with the curing agent.
The silicone is highly viscose while the curing agent has the consistency of water. Not a good combination as its going to be difficult not get air bubbles in the mixture while stirring them together. If air bubbles get trapped in the thick mixture it could weaken the mould and worse, leave air bubble gaps on the surface of the object I’m moulding.
Here goes to pouring mixture into mould very carefully to avoid any more air in the silicone rubber, because unfortunately, there are loads of bubbles in the mixture.
This last photo shows the surface of the filled moulding box and it is evident a lot of air bubbles are in the moulding.
In her installation entitled ‘yellowbluepink’, Ann Veronica Janssens experiments with light and colour to pursue the effects on perception.
Entering a room you are greeted by a wall of pinkish-red light and the sound of other people in the space. The echoing resonance gives the impression that the room is rather large. Walking further into the space the mist changes colour to yellow and you can make out silhouettes of other people. As you continue further the light changes once more this time to blue. On reaching the far wall of the room it was evident that the space wasn’t as large as I’d first thought. The constancy of the mist and ones ability to be able to distinguish anything only at close quarters focused my concentration more on my perception of the space is was in. The following video link gives a idea of what was experienced.
As with the Turrell and Kapoor pieces this art installation has opened up other avenues of the concept of one can be challenged in how one’s perception can be altered.
