Week Three - Casting up the Fox - Part One

I started this week with task of getting the Fox cast up so I could start work with the foam latex in the next week or so.

                                                    

I started out by laying out the fox onto a bed of clay, roughly 1" high. I then began to build up around the outside of the fox with more clay, going roughly half way up the sides of the fox. This would create the two part mould.

                                               

With the clay built up around the edges I then began to carefully push the clay towards the maquette, creating a seam.

                     

The most tricky part of this whole process was making a good seam for around the head of the Fox. It was tricky due to the very small space between the head and the legs of the fox, not mention the height difference, as the head is raised up higher than the body.

After a lot of time and patience the full seam around the Fox was complete. To finish it up and ensure the seam was a good as possible I went round the whole thing with a very fine, soft bristled paint brush.

Using very small amounts of water and light pressure this cleaned up the seam nicely and ensured it was tight up close to the maquette without leaving any marks in the surface of the plasticine.

Now it's time to start mixing the plaster.