Mold Making: Feet

Incase you haven't read my post about sculpting the feet 

(Link here: Feet sculpt)

You may wonder after possibly already seeing Max, that these sculpts look nothing like bare feet! 

Well due to thinking I couldn't do feet (you now know I ended up doing them) I thought I would make shoes for Max and went with that idea for a while. 

So I carried on with the process of molding the shoe (details would be made and added later on)

In the up coming post you'll see how long I actually try and convince myself to stay with the shoe idea! 

But on to making the mold...

First I would like to say that the orange plasticine was there to protect the ball joints! I now know after doing this, that this is not necessary!!! 

And it just causes problems, rather than preventing them! 

so don't do that.

Similar to the hands I started by rolling out, cutting, and then smoothing out some water based clay. I then began to position the feet on to the clay.

This time however I used the technique of keeping cling film / saran wrap under the sculpt. The was useful as anytime I needed to move the sculpt off the clay I did not have to physically handle them, I could just use the cling film as a net and pull them off. Also it kept the sculpt clean from the clay! 

Double Bonus! 

Once positioned, I then drew and faint outline around the sculpts

Tip

One new technique I like to do if possible wit hthe size of the sculpts, is to use a marker and draw a line or dotted line down the centre of the sculpt being sure not to dent it! 

Now you have a centre line to know where your claying up to! 

Then it was time to smooth the clay flush to the sculpts.

And then keys were added. To ensure when both halves of the plaster mold are finished they align perfectly back up without moving.

Boxing up was then done with foam board and a hot glue gun. And it was time to pour the plaster! 

As usual I have my boxed in sculpt. A mat incase any plaster spills. Bowl of water. Bucket of plaster. And some extra clay incase any plaster seeps through the foam board.

No plaster seeped through and it was time to wait. Forgot to say on the last mold making post, I usually wait a couple of hours for the plaster to set, I like to test by digging my finger nail in to the top, if it leaves a mark it's not cured. Although if you've waited 3-4 hours or so it should be done! 

I removed the mold from the foam board, and carefully removed the clay.

The same process as the hands, of brushing the clay with water was used to remove the clay close to the sculpt.

I then added plasticine to cover dead space. Again just like the hands :)

I managed to salvage the foam board used previously to box in my mold again.

Saving Money 101: Reuse material if possible

and just incase your wondering

I did remember to spray wax release and vaseline the plaster :) 

Here's the finished mold.

Remember when I said the orange plasticine would just case problems. Well at this point I though I now have no place to hold the armature up mid way and level when it comes to casting! 

Below is how I should've cast them. For some reason I thought the plaster might damage the balls but it doesn't, F.Y.I.