Intel's Silicon Rising

Silicon Rising is a custom display for Intel. It will encompass traditional sculpting and casting techniques, such as rubber molds and roto-casted pieces. I'm also building a vacuum forming machine and will get specs up for that if anyone is interested in making their own. This is a design with an interesting concept, one that came to me in a daydream. Out of a silicon crystal base we have a metalic winged figure taking flight at a dramatic angle. With the use of internal lighting in both the base and the figure, this should make for an interesting piece. Here is the concept artwork:

Here is a full sized print out of the illustration. Before sculpting the figure in clay begins, I have to make a plywood base to support the sculpture. The clay is the same that automibile designers use for prototypes.

"Chavant CM-70 : This “extra hard” styling clay is the hardest of the sulphur-type clays. Popular throughout the automotive industry where surface detail and finish are critical."

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 2:54 am

Sculpted until the wee hours this morning. First shows the warmed up clay being formed over the plywood fin. Next few pics we have the basic build-up and it starts to take shape.

The white disk in the last pic is where I decided to put the intake fans...right at the front of the wings. Should be cool with a couple lighted 60mm's with nose cones from RC airplanes.

Sculpting progresses quite beautifuly..The lines and composition really start to take a feeling of motion and symmetry. At this stage you can really see the aeronautical influence on the figure.

Mold Making

I'll post a pic of the finished sculpture as soon as the plaster mother mold is completed. Here are a few pics of the process. First step is to cover the sculpture with plastic wrap so we don't gunk it up with the earth clay we're going to use for the blanket mold.

Next is to roll out the pottery clay into 1/2 inch slabs. This step determines the thickness of the silicone rubber mold later on.

Here we begin to lay the clay on the sculpture like a blanket, hence the term 'blanket mold'.

The sculpture is now completely covered in pottery clay at a thickness of 1/2" all around.

What you see here is a clay 'fin' that splits the sculpture down its center. Notice also the small square keys at the base. This helps lock the silicone rubber skin into the plaster shell once its completed.

Here you can see I used a small can at the top to create a pour hole for the silicone.

One half of the sculpture now gets about 25 lbs of plaster, done in layers with burlap material in between for added strength:

The plaster on the right side is cured and now its time to pull off that clay fin and prepare the other side for plaster.

Once the clay fin is off, the plaster is cleaned up and the key holes prepared. After a very liberal coating of petrolium jelly the plaster is applied. Petrolium jelly prevents the two halves of the plaster from sticking together.

Plaster is applied in three coats and a dowel with cloth ties is embedded for easy removal of the mother mold.

Tomorrow I'll crack this sucka open, remove the sculpture and clay blanket. Next is to prep the sculpture and mother mold for pouring the liquid silicone.

I opened the mother mold and removed the earth clay and plastic wrap from the sculpture.

Next are some shots of the finished sculpture.

Here I put the sculpture inside one half of the mother mold so you can
see the 1/2" gap all around. The footprint of the sculpture is 20" long

A stick ruler gives an idea of scale. from Base to top of head is 13 1/2 inches high

Cleaning up the bottom edges of the mother mold.

Small imperfections on the inside were filled with Durham's water putty.

Next step is to coat the sculpture in clear acrylic Krylon to prevent the sulphur gas content of the clay from affecting the silicon rubber during the cure.

Poured a few gallons of Mold Max 30 today!...With the sculpture inside the mother mold, I soaked a few strips of an old teeshirt in plaster, then sealed the seams of the mother mold. This will be 'zipped' off once the silicone cures. Clay and plaster sealed the bottom of the mother mold to the table. I also poured the mold for the Matrix project. Two gallons (20 pounds) of Mold Max 30 did both projects.

Lightly tapping on the mold with a rubber mallet will help release any bubbles that might have been trapped. The consistency of the silicone was like pancake batter.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/p.../sculpt_40.jpg

I got all the pics off my camera today and thought I'd show you the sculpture when it came out of he mold last week. Perfecto!...very happy with the results and the performance of the casting material. overall its about 1/4" thick after 8 or so coats. Time for painting and finishing after sanding the hell out of it!

Here are some pics I took during finishing and painting...

Installing the lighted 60mm case fans inside the wings:

Time was running out on my deadline to finish, so I didn't have time to complete the entire worklog. Here are the pics of the final display:

Silicon Rising

i choose the wrong career path :D - who would of thought those years of playing with playdoe (sp?) could of paid off ;)

wow! that is very cool! great job, and keep up the good work!!!

I could never do something like that! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Like you need us to tell you how great you are.... ;)

But we will anyway.

Superb!!

(PS - I'm not going mad, this is the worklog for the project u did a while ago...?)

yeah this is a couple of years old--thanks the the comments tho!

Wow, cool stuff. But darnit if I am getting a confused on the casting process...

Here is what I see, what am I missing:
creature sculpture
Add layer of clay
Create "mother mold" over clay
Break apart mother mold, remove clay.
Now you have a sculpture, and a mother mold, when you put the sculpture in the mother mold you have a space between them where you pour your casting material. but the Inside of this is detailed(against your sculpture) whereas the outside against the mother mold is not precise(as it was just your clay spacer).

Somewhere I am missing where you create the inverse detailed outer mold to pour the casting material into. Sure you can cast into the space between your mothermold and the statue and that is your new mold to pour a material into, which would thenbe detailed, and you discard this interim step mold, I just don't see you describe that above. (I really just want to understand your process, I'm not trying to be difficult ;)

Also It seems like the process you describe above requires a lot more steps than just making a mold directly off your initial sculpture, I was wondering why you choose to go the route you choose. (was it material restrictions, desire to be able to make more than one piece, etc..)

EDIT: ok I went back and reread everything again (4th time) and I think I might have caught why you did this. It sounds like at one point you talk about a silicon rubber mold, so I think the steps I donot see are the silicon rubber molded into the area where the blanket was. but then it looks like you skip to where you have taken out the whatever material the final is made from out of the silicon mold. or shoot am i just getting more confused....

Read This Tutorial on mold making, it's the same exact method I used. ;)

Oh sure now you post this and I have half way through making a mess with one of my projects. (Having a bit of problem with mold release and Epoxy sticking to each other when they shouldn't be). :D

I have a bit of reading to do tonight when I get home.

Been a while since I've posted here. Paul, thanks for the tutorial. It's not much different than some of the books I've read, but then again my books don't cover projects on a large scale like this one.

I must ask you, by the way: how do you mix your silicone (other than very, very well)? Do you use some large stir stick, or a spoon? Or is there no spoon? :D

Just wondering because I've had some moderate success with my silicone adventures, and not all of it cured (still hasn't, months later lol). I know why some of it didn't (sulphur clay in some parts of the model), but I'm wondering if other parts didn't cure because I didn't mix it well enough. I thought the colour was uniform. This stuff is expensive, and I'd like to avoid wasting anymore.

wow man.. nice modding right there...

beautiful!

damn that is a very futuristic looking dude or chick????

LoL..def inspired by a female figure

Love it! She has an excellent shape and composition, kind of strikes me a a speed swimmer coming up for air. You definately caught the "Rising" effect for Silicone Rising.
Jon

OHH ok, so that a pretty hot looking chick ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crimson Sky

Read This Tutorial on mold making, it's the same exact method I used. ;)

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Thats the best mod I have seen yet! I love the way it turned out an amazing looking scuplture. thanks for the link as well I will be using that in my next mod. see if I can get molding down.

look very good keep up the good work

Holy **** man This a Thing From Other Plant !! Man YOu clever and amazing

Wow! I don't know what else to say? Wow!:D

Wait, what the heck? You made this Crimson? HA! What the hell is wrong with me?? I can't believe I didn't realize this until just now. I remember seeing this awhile back when I first crashed landed here on these forums and I remember thinking that it was one of the coolest pieces I've seen. lol funny I didn't realize the creator was you...

A masterpiece created by a master craftsman. I'm not surprised, It's just to be expected from you. haha :)

I hadn't seen this.
WOW. Amazing.

I love the head.
Like a 30s ArtDeco/Futuristic female "being"... Sentinnel.
I dunno... I like it a lot!!!!

Cheers! Really great work! :)

-AJ

How did you do the silicon crystals? It's not SiO2... I'd be interested in knowing, for my own edification...

Kayin, the crystals are actually cast acrylic pieces of fake ice--the kind used for food commercials and photography :) You can get cubes, shards and chunks. They are pretty inexpensive when ya buy a big bag of 'em.

Makes plenty of sense then.

I've used similar techniques on Mithril, but the effect on yours is quite striking.