Post #258165 by Paipo on Sun, Oct 1, 2006 1:27 AM

Well, I'm back from my trip away for the exhibition opening, which went very well. I had a few presales and some more on the night, but it was best just to hang out with the crew and get some feedback from the public. I'm not sure how the tikis will go in the NZ gallery environment, but the contemporary stuff is walking out the door!

Thanks hewey, Benz and GMAN. G, these guys will be ready soonish, I just need to fine tune the casting process, and I want to try handpainting a couple as well. Once they look right and I can figure out the costing I'll give everyone who's expressed interest a heads-up. As for process, it's fairly straightforward - just making a rubber mold from the original and mixing and pouring the resin - easy to find out the basics and get the supplies, much harder to work out how to get the colour and finish you want.

Tim, welcome to TC, and thanks for making your first post an informative and helpful one. Where's Gundaroo? I'm pretty well-travelled in Aussie (just quietly I'm one myself!) but haven't heard of it.
Regarding your method, I think it would probably be too thick for the detail I need to get when casting - I need the resin to have very high viscosity to get into the fine details of the carving. It would probably be fantastic for bigger sculptural pieces though. I did try sand, but it just settled in one place because the resin was so thin. I guess some sort of super fine ground stone powder might work, but I've actually got a pretty good stone look just using dyes. The two castings that were worn at the opening the other night were mistaken for stone originals by everyone who saw them. They are light and plastic feeling to touch, but I figure if you want it all you may as well get an original!