New Member, New Foam Carving pics. . .

I found this site last week. . . then I found a huge bead foam block at the local dump Price: free. Here's what I did with it. As you can see, I cut it in 1/2 diagonally to make two blanks. Then I borrowed my wife's kitchen knives and carved something that kind looked like a Moai; 1/2 inspired by a tiki mug & 1/2 by Easter Island. I followed somebody's post and did the acetone drip, primer, "nearly black" exterior (w/Wagner power painter), and last a dark grey light finish coat. It may not be perfect, but my wife thinks I'm a genius. Go figure. The leftover blank may become an angry, arm-crossed Tiki man.

Q; Is this thing weatherproof?

Excellent job Iron Dude, Especially for your first tiki. Caan't wait to see the next piece. also I se the poles drawn out in the background, keep us posted. Your wife may be right.

Brilliant! That is great! Free is the best. Let's see some more....

-G

Nice tiki! The dump is a wonderful place. It always keeps me busy carving. One man's trash is another man's treasure. :drink:

That must be a dream to just carve away in.
It turned out really good.

Very Nice, Can't wait to see what you do with the other half.

On 2007-07-14 16:11, IronDude in Clearwater wrote:

That's a pretty impressive lava effect right there - you wouldn't know it wasn't stone until you reached out and touched it. I have dreams of a similar sized moai outside the door of my studio somehow...
Sweet carve!

Ok, what's in the cup?

Nice work !

hey Irondude- very cool moai! i'm sorry i can't remember what to coat it with, but you can make it VERY water/climate/elements/time proof. i'll find out what it is. a customer/friend of ours is supposedly holding on to a bunch of the stuff for me. and for the same reason! a giant moai. i'm jealeous. i'll come back and post what it is. cheers!!

Awesome! Recycling at its best. Is it me or is Florida suddenly exploding with new carvers. I have seen a huge jump in activity or maybe I'm just paying more attention these days. We should form guild or something.

Wow!! That is very cool!! Where can I get some foam??

Nice carving mate :D

On 2007-07-28 08:55, ChefMike wrote:
Wow!! That is very cool!! Where can I get some foam??

There's a recycled goods/industrial offcuts place here in Sydney, it caters specifically for artists. They sell massive foam blocks, Im keen to have a go at one. Greentikipat, love to know what is used to seal the foam for outdoors.

love to know what is used to seal the foam for outdoors.

I've been working a lot in foam recently, and I've found several products that can be used to coat it for various uses.

There are several products available at Lowes or Home Depot; pre-mixed concrete patch and stucco patch are two I've used. They are both fairly hard and weatherproof. You can also use dry stucco mix troweled on.

Also, here are some other things I've found. I've been told by a colleague that this Rosco product works well, but it's expensive, and you'll probably have to order it from a dealer: http://www.rosco.com/us/scenic/foamcoat.asp

These I can't really say anything about since I've never used any of them:
http://www.sculpturalarts.com/
http://www.fxsupply.com/materials/foamcoat.html
http://www.aboyd.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HWF%20026
http://www.demandproducts.com/ent.html

On 2007-07-14 16:11, IronDude in Clearwater wrote:
I followed somebody's post and did the acetone drip,

Your sculpture is very nice! It looks very much like lava rock.

I looked for a post about an acetone drip, but didn't find anything.
Are you saying you spattered acetone on your sculpture to make the small holes?

-Don

Spaceboy show a picture of your foam moai.
It's awesome!
So is this one by the way.