Thursday 27 September 2012

Making Twitr_janus' skull

Twitr_janus skull
This was fun. The face is hot glue from a silicon-latex mould.
The cranium is papier mache over a carved polystyrene block.
Here are the design sketches...
Twitr_janus' cranium designs

To get started, a face mask was lined up....

Carving Twitr_janus' cranium

to compare with the pencil designs...

Carving Twitr_janus' cranium
. the design was drawn onto the block...
Carving Twitr_janus' cranium

Then some roughing out with the carving-knife ...

Carving Twitr_janus' cranium
As the shape developed, masking tape was used to hold the mask to the polystyrene block

Carving Twitr_janus' cranium

The block was carved away until...
Twitr_janus' cranium

The actual mask is a hot glue variation from the same mould that the latex mask was made from. This was lined up with the papier mache cranium.
Twitr_janus skull
and glued on by melding the hot glue to the papier mache
Twitr_janus skull

Monday 17 September 2012

First mouldings from Twitr_janus face mask mould

Various latex experiments with the Twitr_janus face mould...

This is the third moulding and is starting to get there looking OK, but the colour is not quite right
Twitr_janus' face mask #3
This is the second moulding - nice, especially the sawdust reinforcement
twitr_janus face mask
Below was the first attempt. Rather optimistically using latex thickener. Some details were lost, mainly the nose, although the end result was outstanding, but perhaps just outstandingly grotesque. I do like this.
twitr_janus face mask
Model, mould, moulding...


twitr_janus face maskRemoving moulding #2twitr_janus face mask
Removing moulding #2 - looking good
twitr_janus face mask
Detail of using nylon cross-stitch mesh to reinforce the latex
Twitr_janus face mask
Moulding #3. Has an Essex tan
Latex face mask moulding for Twitr_janus
And finally, a time-lapse video of how a moulding is made. Interval is 30 seconds

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Making a silicon latex mould for Twitr_janus' face from the clay model

Silicon latex mould of Twitr_janus' face next to the model

Twitr_janus face mask mouldmaking

Corrugated cardboard is your friend

To make a sturdy mould, cardboard from old boxes and tape are pretty unbeatable.

Here, the original clay model was placed on a cardboard sheet and used as a template to create a baseboard for the mould to add walls onto.
Making a silicon mould step 1 Making a silicon mould step 2



















Making the mould walls

Corrugated cardboard can be made to create a flexible mouldable surface, that is rigid in one plane, and flexible in another. This can be done by pulling it over a corner to break the rigidity. The corrugations need to be in line with the edge you are using.

The effect of this can be seen below (left). Once so treated, the cardboard can be shaped fairly easily to create moulding walls. By making small cuts, along an edge fold, tabs can be made to anchor these walls to the baseboard (below, right)

Making a silicon mould step 2 Making a silicon mould step 3













To make the mould, the baseboard and walls were fixed with gaffer tape, inside and out
Making a silicon mould step 5 Making a silicon moul step 4



Making a silicon mould step 6Mouldmaking Twitr_janus face
































Making the mould

This mould was made with a proprietary silicon moulding agent from the legendary sculpture supplier Alec Tiranti  http://www.tiranti.co.uk/subdivision_product_list.asp?Subcategory=51&Subdivision=174
Be warned, the setting agent is evil. Treat with extreme caution if you like wildlife. It has a rather scary disclaimer, so responsible disposal is a good idea!
Making a silicon mould step 7 Making a silicon mould step 8
















If you pour latex straight, you need to make sure you have enough of  it. Here, the latex was built up in three layers to save cost. This allows you to add latex to the parts that protude.

The latex was left for 2 days to set completely. Then the cardboard was cut off and the mould eased off the model.
Twitr_janus face mask mouldmaking Twitr_janus face mask mouldmaking













Twitr_janus face mask mouldmaking Twitr_janus face mask mouldmaking













The mould will have rough edges. These were trimmed with scissors to give the final mould - Voila!
Twitr_janus face mask mouldmaking

Huge pieces of polystyrene


Huge pieces of polystyrene
Originally uploaded by rosemarybeetle

Just seen these awesome pieces of polystyrene which are probably concrete moulding parts or possibly shipping packing...
This was such a tease as they were behind a fence.
I could carve so many things out of these

Friday 7 September 2012

MakeyMakey eyeball interface controlled by cardboard and a coin

Well, I have to say that the MakeyMakey is pretty f. awesome and the whole idea of crowdsourcing a product via Kickstarter is really quite superb.
And so, let's build something...

Here is a nice physical cardboard eyeball (about 8cm x 3cm)
MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI
The eye was knocked up in about 40 minutes from card, paper, pencil, Promarker felt tip pens, glue and a two pence coin...
MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI














Here is that very coin - glued aback a cardboard ring, which is the iris.
MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI














On the left is the completed layered eyeball. At the bottom, you can see a crocodile clip...
On the right is the cardboard eyeball, connected to the MakeyMakey, connected to the PC which is running the virtual Twitr_janus_eyeballs Processing sketch running on openprocessing.org
MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI














Below on the left is the easy-peasy MakeyMakey crocodile clip connectors (I love crocodile clips)
Right - twitr_janus eyeballs
MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI MakeyMakey DIY eyeball UI














Or you can just watch a fairly short demo video...
This took about 90 minutes to set up from nothing to working. SWEET!!

Monday 3 September 2012

MakeyMakey arrives...

Apologies, this is a non-making post - just getting excited about having finally got a new MakeyMakey after lengthy Kickstarter waiting...

The good news is...

The MakeyMakey arrived.
Makey Makey

The bad news is...

Shame about the £12.50 customs tax :(
Makey Makey

The good news is...

It's got a very nice usb cable
Makey Makey

The bad news is...

The pug was asleep and missed all the action
Makey Makey

The good news is...

even the packagin was rather tasty
Makey Makey packaging OK that's enough now...