Liz bust - moulding #02

It's hard to get air bubbles out from the silicone without pressure/vacuum tank and a compressor. But it doesn't really matter if there are some small bubbles in silicone. If the surface touching the original statue and later the casting material is bubble free, then the castings will be okay.

To ensure that, it's a good idea not to pour all the silicone at once, but at first mix just a small amount of it and to brush the statue's surface with a thin film of silicone. This layer will get to all the cracks and cavities and cover the statue with smooth uniform silicone layer. Small air bubbles will not get trapped to the deeper corners of the statue's textures and details, but they will surface and pop. It's good idea to help it with air blower.

When this layer is hard, it's easy to pour in all the other silicone and to recycle older silicone mould pieces as a filler.

I didn't invent the idea of using Legos in mould making. But it works and it's actually a pretty good trick! Here's my Liz statue with one side of it in "plastiliin" (look at the earlier picture in part 1) and other covered with silicone. Big part of it is not the freshly mixed silicone, but small cubes, cut from older moulds.

In some 18 hours it should be hard, then I will open it, clean up the other side, cover silicone with vaseline to keep mould sides separate and start making the other side. Again - first just the thin film of silicone, the same way as on the first side. Then all the other silicone. On the next day the mould will be finished and is ready for casting first resin test copies.