Even though I’m not feeling great about where I’m going with this project, it’s still important to me that I keep busy and pushing forward while I figure things out. I knew that I needed to make silicone molds of these first two portraits, so I thought I would give myself a break from thinking so much and focus on the manual labor of making molds. Then comes the fun part: trying out different materials to cast in to determine what will work best.
This morning I added the first layer of silicone to plaster casts. This is a trick that I learned from my friend Ji Woong Cheh in graduate school. The danger with the silicone is that if you simply pour the silicone without this first layer, you’ll get air bubbles in the silicone, which makes for a flawed mold. The silicone is like molasses, and so when it moves and settles, it causes the first layer to be very thin, which results in no air bubbles at all. It’s pretty much a fool proof technique, every silicone mold I’ve made in the past has been completely air bubble free which is great.
Despite the fact that I’ve made many silicone molds in the past, I still get a little freaked out when I’m mixing the silicone that something will go wrong with the measurements, the silicone won’t cure, and the whole piece will go to waste. Not once has this ever happened to me in the past, as I am very thorough and anal retentive about mixing the silicone, but it’s still a thought that always crosses my mind every time. I’m always very anxious to come in the next morning to check on the mold.
