Going to Denmark BRB

I just got an offer to come back and work for 10tons in Copenhagen like NOW. Sure.

I found a room in Malmö (still in Sweden, but right next to Denmark) surprisingly fast so on Saturday I'll be getting on a 16-hour train to the south.

I'll be working on an assortment of animal heads for the Australian contribute to Eurovision (wat? I don't know), an "Oak leaf leather furniture project", a huge leather trilobite and assembling a whale skeleton.

This is going to be great.

This time in Denmark I'm not going to be financially handicapped like last time, I'll have sufficient funds to actually enjoy myself and maybe aquire some exotic materials.

Also, it's probably already summer over there, so I can skip the confused slushy gravel season we have up here and come back in time for the actual spring.

Perfect.

It is a lovely place 

There's the workshop, or a part of I it, outside there's a huge room complete with industrial machines for large scale projects and repairing boats. 

All the materials, tools, machines and space needed to make Anything.

This will solve my problems with the lotus, I'll just bring it over to Denmark (along with the dragon parts) and with access to some fancy machinery I can make perfect casts.

My favourite thing about this place is the abundance of disposable things.

Prop-maker pornography

Look at this, that's an entire box of assorted mixing containers and endless stacks of clean buckets. 

After two years in the prop-making program workshop, in which you were lucky if you could find a discarded take away coffee cup in the dumpster that could be made somewhat presentable, this is amazing and luxurious to me.

Anyway, now I'll enjoy a few hectic days of putting everything in order for the trip.

Dragon casting

Making some more dragon parts!

I've made the molds and I'm just now waiting for the first batch of those claws, spikes and horns (in the first picture) to cure.
Waiting for stuff to cure is both really exciting and brings great angst. It might turn out great and that makes you really happy, or the cast comes out completely useless because [stuff] happened and you've now wasted time, materials and money and for a while you feel like maybe the best cause of action is to apply for a job at McDonalds instead.

Anyway, the head and rib-cage cast turned out great

I made slush casts (you slush a small amount of the resin around in the mold until it sets along the walls, instead of filling it completely) to get hollow casts and sanded out the spaces in between ribs and teeth from the inside.

I've only got a few vertebrae left to sculpt and then I can start assembling the bones.


Super-cool frozen glowing Black Lotus progress:










The lotus petal casts turned out like crap. Again, and again and again.
The resin somehow reacts with the mold, forming a layer of bubbles along the surface of the mold in an otherwise bubble free resin.
This kind of silicone should be compatible with the poly-optic, might be that the mold is somehow tainted.
Anyway, after experimenting with a thousand different fixes trying to get a good cast I accept defeat temporarily, and decided to just sand down the failed casts and re-"sculpt" the surface with a dremel.

Anyway, I'm going to paint the petals on the outside of these, stack them and cast them into more poly-optic.
When emerged in the resin they will be crystal clear (well, they are, but the sanded surface makes them appear cloudy) and disappear - leaving only the painted petals visible

It's gonna be great, probably.

Wooloowloowloo

Just a small needle felted wool owl I just made for an Etsy-customer.

Basic shaping and feet

The feet and toes are made from iron wire, fully posable so the owl can perch on pretty much
anything.
The claws and beak are made from Green Stuff, sanded and painted later on.
The eyes are glass, pre bought.

The wool I'm using is locally produced, I had to venture deep into the northern wilderness to get it from an old hermity wool lady.
It's a peculiar place, she just sits there in the middle of nowhere preparing copious amounts of wool.
Her house consists of wool, wool, wool, wool, wool, a huge monster of a carding machine and... a disco room.

One could argue that there are easier ways to get wool, but it's really nice wool.

The moss underneath is a tray. I like keeping my smaller craft projects on trays so I can easily switch between active projects and move them back and forth.
I care deeply for the moss tray and only use it for friendly and pleasant things.
The other trays are for angry projects with knives, sticky clays, solvents and chemicals.

Adding details

Aaand finished!

Also, unrelated to the owl:

a sneak peek of something completely different, something secret.

It's not the larch.

New old, dead dragon

Many years ago I made a ceramic dragon skeleton as a project in art school, I've always wanted to do a remake because think some of the parts are crudely sculpted and I can make it a lot better now.

I never really found the time to do so until now, when I got a custom order for another one.

Instead of ceramic, which is brittle and has to be fired, I will make the new one from polyurethane plastic, two-component self curing clay and some real chicken bones.

I wont make all the parts separately as with the ceramic one, instead it will be sculpted in bigger, mouldable sections.

Some of the bigger parts almost ready for moulding.

Although it will be better than the last, I won't have time to make this one as super realistic as I'd like.

I'll just wait for an opportunity for another remake. A bigger, better one.

Apart from the dragon I'm working on two other projects, an award statue for the Nordic championship in Magic - The gathering for Nordsken (local computer-/boardgame festival): A glowing Black Lotus frozen in a block of "ice".

Some petals for the Black Lotus being moulded

The third project is a secret I'm not allowed to publish yet.

Mildly frustrating.