Horn
Sculpts
After using Le Beau Touche and grey plasterline for quite a bit, I wanted to start using "monster clay" which was recommended to me by another student . I have always thought some clays I have experienced using have always appeared sticky and when in contact with heat, it can become to sticky and act like a glue and stick to your hands, which can become very frustrating when trying to mould a certain shape. Monster clay however seemed to not have that affect having researched about it.
So......Monster clay is my favourite clay to work with. The experience of melting it was extremely fun and easy, and I was quite surprised how much it turned into a liquid form, even being in the microwave for 2 minutes with supervision, it was a consistency like melted chocolate.
Here is what the clay appeared like once it had come from the microwave. It was then ready to be poured into my alginate mould of the pigs trotter I had made. ( shown on other pages )
Here I started experimenting with Le beau touche clay. I started trying to form together a horn for my characters head. I used a very thin stick for a starting point so I could sculpt around it with the clay. I started moulding together smaller pieces of clay so I could then fuse it together and smooth it out. The stick helped to keep the clay as straight as possible.
1. A small layer of clay was added to the base to start moulding onto, I decided to use a small, thin stick to use as a starting point to start claying onto. I built from the bottom upwards, as the base had to be thicker than the tip.
2. I built the clay up all the way to the top, and fused it all together and smoothed it out to start to form the shape of a horn.
3. I took the stick from the clay base so I could begin to roll the horn into a smooth shape, and so the clay form into one solid shape. It was a method you would usually use to roll out dough, or to even shape playdoh.
4. I started building up small thinner rolls of clay into a spiral form around the main part of the horn to start moulding the spiral texture.
5. A close up of the start of the spiral shape around the clay base.
6. I tried a different method of starting from the top first and took all the clay from the bottom off and started again.
7. I then decided I didn't like the progress of the method I was using, so I decided to add multiple layers of sausage-like shapes and wrapped it around the horn base.
8. The tip of the horn was starting to form together nicely here, but I still felt like it wasn't forming together as well as what I was using as a reference guide.
9. A close up of the spiral form of the horn, it was forming accurately here, but the more I tried to mould the shape together, it was getting uneven and the clay was sticking to my fingers, which was frustrating!.
So I decided to scrap the above sculpts, and try a different method. These are the 3 nearly finished sculpts that I made, different shapes and different textures. This allowed me to observe which horn turned out to be the accurate sculpt to use for my project.
1. The simple method of melthing le beau touche in the microwave made it easier for me to work with the shape. I placed the clay into a bowl and into the microwave for 2 mins and stirred in intervals to prevent overheating.
2. When the clay was warm, I performed a twisting technique that caused movement in sections throughout the sculpt, as shown above. This twisiting technique turned out a lot better than the previous method, and although it was simple, it worked well for what I wanted.
3. A close up of one of the smaller horn I made, again with the same twisted motion, but a much tighter look. The appearance of the clay looked large at the base and small at the top, which is what I wanted, with the tightness of the clay, the texture I got out of the technique was accurate to what I researched.
4. A measuring cup was then placed around the horns to create a mold for the silicone to be poured into. The plastic cup had the bottom cut off, and then flipped upside down, so it then became the top part.
5. The bottom was then cellotaped down to ensure it didn't raise up once the silicone was poured into it. The horns were securely stuck down, and it was now time to pour the silicone into the cup.
6. A ratio of 150 of A and 150 B was then mixed together, in total , 300g of platsil Gel 00. The mixture was thoroughly stirred until it was all combined as one material.
I must say, there was a lot of swearing and frustration around this moment, as the cellotape wasn't strong enough, so the weight of the silicone pushed the plastic cup up, and the silcone was likt a massive oil spill , it got everywhere!!
So the approach of trying to create a clay walla round the cup, became effective at first, until the same thing happened again , I ended up having to quickly scoop the silicone up with my hands and then holding the cup down in place.
The fully cured second attempt. It turned out okay in the end.
When the silicone had fully cured, i then cut a slit up the middle of the cup so I could release the silicone mold.
The silicone mold itself had a massive surface area around the horn molds, so I decided to try and get rid of any access silicone that wasn't needed, just to make the mold smaller to work with. I used a bread knife to slice it in half , and then cut away any additional material.
I then had to try and pop out the clay sculpts from the silucone mold. This became a bit of a task as it wouldn't come out without a fight.
The mold when the clay was eventually removed from the silicone mold.
The mold was then cleaned out before resin was poured into it.
A little mixture of 50g of resin was then mixed up in a little pot , which could be disposed of afterward. The mixture was mixed thoroughly and then poured into the mold.
The pulling out of the resin mold was then the next step, I experimented with doing an entire resin horn.
The result of the horn once it was pulled from the mold.
I then repeated the same process to make the other horn I made, just to see what it would turn out like as they both appeared different in shape and size. I then needed to clean them both up as they still appeared to pick up some left over clay that was still within the siliicone mold.
I then, with acrylic paint, decided to add a base coloue ( Black ) , and then I could then eventually build up with lighter colours, I always find that darker colours are harder to paint ontop of lighter colours, but darker colours are easier to work with first. I loved how easily it painted on, and the end result looked really effective.
Close up of the horn whilst it was drying.
I waited until the bottom had dried first before I painted the top half as I didn't want to get any paint on my hands and ruin the paintwork that had already been applied.
Making the horns was the enjoyable part of the project, I melted the clay slightly so it was easier to manage, and used the twisting motion to achieve the spiraled apperance which worked well. Very little effort, but the littlest method used made them seem very textured. I didn't however enjoy making the mold for the horns, on 2 occasions, the silicone overflowed from the plastic cup mold I made, and it became extremely frustrating, the amount of silicone that was wasted in the first run was what annoyed me the most, and for it to happen a second time when I changed the way I placed the cup down, was even more frustrating, I ended up having to scoop the silicone up with a label and my bare hands and try and put it all back into the cup to make sure the horns were completely covered.
The overall resin horn turned out amazing, and I couldn't fault the outcome, it was easy to paint onto, and I loved the end result.
Bigger is always better, I wanted to achieve a nice clean look, using small and good quality pieces. I struggled thinking of what sort of horns to create, but next time I think I will push the boat out and make much bigger horns.
I will also use the method of swishing resin around a mold, and then filling it with expanding foam. I didn't use that for this project as I instead, made 2 full resin horns, which may of been one of the reasons why it didn't stick down properly.