Tiki Central / Tiki Carving / The making of a Moai in foam!
Post #241858 by THOR's on Sun, Jul 9, 2006 1:40 PM
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Sun, Jul 9, 2006 1:40 PM
ALOHA LOCO!! Hey, I am not on here nearly as much as I would like, but making it a resolution to get on here and enjoy it more often!! I saw this GREAT Moai in bead foam and your other post asking if anyone had worked in this medium much. I wanted to share an aplication where I used bead foam to simulate faux lava rock for our sign on one of the "Thor Stor"'s we just opened a few months ago in Waikiki. I have, in the past carved some pretty convincing tiki's for sets that were to look like they were made of lava. Bead foam is excellent because of the weight though it is messy as all hell as you have discovered I am sure! One great "trick" you can try in case I missed it and this has already been mentioned here is to use acetone as a final surface effect on any bead foam sculpture that you want to make look like lava. Acetone eats away at the foam like muric acid eats flesh in a Vincent Price Horror flick, so you have to control it carefully. I put the acetone in a disposable squirt bottle you can get at a hardware store thetas used for glass cleaners..etc. You "spritz" the acetone on your final sculpture and it makes all sorts of tiny holes like lava rock bubbles. To make really cool larger holes, dribble a bit of the acetone in spots...the result is AMAZING! BE SURE to be in a VERY well WELL VENTILATED area!!! The fumes are VERY toxic gasses!! Below is a picture of the sign we did for our first Store. I cut a big slab of bead foam and carved the main shape and cracks. I then did the acetone trick, followed by a coat of universal paint primer. After that dried, I gave the whole thing a coat of almost black, flat latex paint, making sure it went into all the holes and cracks. Lastly, after that dried, I "dry brushed" the black slab with some drk brown latex paint. This brought the texture to life and accentuated the cracks and holes very well. The lettering was done on the computer and laser cut in acrylic plastic, painted in the hot red to orange and mounted on pegs about 2: away from the surface of the lava slab. When lights are on this sign..it can be seen from hundreds of feet away on the Waikiki strip! I made this sign for less than a few hundred and was given an estimate of a few thousand by sign makers to duplicate this sort of sign. So..cheap and effective! Bead foam saved the day!!!!! Good luck! Great job on the Moai!! |