Casting Elective

Casting Elective 1

1^st elective- casting small pieces of fruit

For my first casting session I chose to cast a lemon and a lime. I chose these two fruits due to thinking that they worked effectively together as a pair- they are both citrus fruits that are often paired together. I also chose these fruits due to their waxy texture. As I haven’t done casting before I wanted to choose something that would be relatively easy for me to cast. The waxy skin meant that it would make it easy for me to remove the fruit from the cast after creating the mould.

Steps in creating a two part mould:

1.       Lubricate the object (fruit)

2.       Cover in modrock leaving a seal, creating two halves to the mould. Strengthen along the seal with extra modrock

3.       Let the modrock cast dry, then remove from the object and lubricate the inside of the mould. Place the two halves back together and modrock around the seal.

4.       Mix up the plaster, then pour into the mould

5.       Wait until set/dry (24 hours) then remove the modrock cast

6.       You are left with a plaster positive!

Casting Elective 2

2nd elective- casting small objects

For my second casting session we followed the same process as for casting fruit. This time the fruit was swapped with small objects of our choice. I chose a snail piggybank, a small ornamental owl, and a plastic bottle. I picked these objects because of their textures. I wanted to chose interesting objects to cast that would pick up the patterns and textures when a plaster positive was made. After the plaster positives were made Rob asked us to pick one of our objects to cast again. They were placed in a wooden box and then had a rubber solution poured onto them. After the rubber was set the plaster positive objects were removed. The holes where the plaster positives previously were were then filled with resin coloured yellow. 

Casting Elective 3

3rd elective- casting using pewter

For my 3rd casting elective we experimented with casting using pewter. Firstly made a wall to pour sillicone into. This was made from lego as it is a good interlocking material which does not allow the sillicone to leak from it. The key was then placed into the middle of the lego and sillicone poured on top. After the sillicone had set the key was removed. This then left a key shape that was able to be filled with warm melted pewter. The pewter had to be worked with fast due to its setting time being very short. We also learnt how to do hollow casting. Firstly casting an object leaving a hole for liquid to be pored into, much the same as in the small object casting. Then after the cast was set and the object was removed we poured melted dark chocolate into the mold. The chocolate was swished around and then poured out, each time building up a thicker layer around the outside. The end cast was then hollow. 

Casting Elective 4

4th elective- bring in an object to learn how to cast

In this elective we were asked to bring in an object on which we would like to gain advise on how we would go about casting. For this elective I brought in a rabbit and bird skull. Ang advised me that both would be difficult, but the end result would need to be made of something metallic due to the thin parts of the skull being easy to snap with a flimsy material. All holes in the skull would also need to be filled in. The verdict was that the skulls could be used to be casted, but it would be a very difficult process. In this session we also got the results of the casting using resin. 

How I have used casting after:

I found this elective really valuable with helping me to create studio work this term. I have created casted pig trotters made from using the hollow technique and experimented with new materials such as wax. The session really helped to boost my confidence and creativity in thinking about how I could portray my subject matter.