MythCast

Dragon Wand - The Journey

Welcome to my very first online tutorial.
To be fair, it’s not exactly a tutorial, just the latter part of the sculpting process, and then all the way through to the finished product.

Ideally I would have started right from scratch, but I found that to be slightly impossible as I only made the decision to do this once I was nearly finished with the wax sculpt.

SO I’ll call this ‘The Journey From Wax to Wand’. Not bad, eh?

We’ll start with the finished wax sculpt. The basic design for this had to be something reptilian, which would fit the hand very nicely, and since I saw in a famous wizarding film that one particular bad guy had a wand with a snake’s head, I thought that was a design which could be adapted - hence the shape of the neck and pitch of the head.
Then it was a case of ‘Ok, I’ve done the head, but what about the rest?’ Pretty simply, dragon - fire - flame motif. So it was twirly bits and flame-like representations down to the pointy end.

Once we’re happy with the final piece, it’s time to prepare it to be molded….

I turn the wand upside down and decide to mould it that way up. I have done this with all the other wands for two reasons. Firstly it means that I don’t need to cut all the way down the mould get the piece out, and also because all the surfaces and detail naturally flow to the peak on it’s head (which is called draft)
So, to get it on to a board, I attach a piece of armature wire (heavy gauge)

This will allow me to add a reservoir (or pouring spout) to the piece, which not only gives me a place to pour the resin, but also for expansion during degassing.

Once I’ve got the wand steady, on a board, with the reservoir, I can start to begin building the carrier into which the mould is poured. For something like this, and in most cases, it is usually a simple box-carrier. I make them using Conti-board, but you can use any rigid material which has a sealed, smooth surface.
**note, there are times when you can accidentally knock or damage your sculpt during this process, messing up any details or surfacing you’ve spent hours working on. So, try to build your carrier before you do any finishing work on the sculpt, that way you don’t spend further hours cursing your bad luck**

As you can see, I have blocked off any excess space within the carrier, as I really really hate to waste mould. You can make your blocking-off as intricate as you wish; in this case it will also give my mould shape and allow it to fit back into the carrier perfectly (which is what is so good about plaster formed carriers, but we’ll get to that on a different piece)
You’ll generally want between 5mm and 1cm distance between the walls of your carrier and your sculpt, this means that you get a good thickness without using a great deal of mould.
I’ll be making my main cut down the back of the wand, so I’ll want a thicker mould section. A quick check before I secure everything.

Once you’ve got your carrier positioned where you want, it is a good idea to attach some guide blocks to your base so that when you re-assemble your finished carrier you can locate it perfectly around your piece without worrying about damage to the sculpt.
I use little modesty blocks (available from any hardware store) but you could simply use a piece of wood.

It is generally around this point, when you’ve assembled your carrier, and are ready to place it over your piece, that you may wish to spray your sculpt with a release spray. I don’t do this as mould releases from wax easily. Some pieces, however, have porous surfaces or a texture that would mean the mould sticks and may well damage the final piece.

Here is the carrier located perfectly in place between the blocks. The screw sticking out is to point out that you should always make sure that your carrier is fixed and secure - I screw mine together and then seal all around the base and up the sides with wax (make sure you fill any holes or gaps in the wood, also any screw points from blocking-off)

Now that the piece is in the carrier, and everything is sealed, that we begin the fun stage of preparing and pouring the mould.
I use a condensation cure silicone mould, which basically means it is ‘room temperature vulcanizing’ (RTV) with a low shore (softness) and high tensile strength (won’t break easily if you stretch it too much)
It comes in a base white with a colored catalyst. I prefer blue.
You can get it in 1kg, 5kg and 25kg kits.

Measure out your required amount of mould and add your catalyst - this type allows for 20 parts mould to 1 part catalyst. You can use any container, really, as long as it has a non-porous surface. I use anything from big industrial buckets, to plastic disposable cups.

You want to mix it in thoroughly, as though mixing a cake. I generally use a baking spatula with a rubber end. But you could use rigid plastic or metal - NOT WOOD

Make sure that you get down to the bottom and that when you’ve finished mixing you have a homogenous blue colour with no white streaks.

This is where you really could do with a Vacuum pump and chamber. You’ll need a decent chamber and a good pump which can go down to -29hg, or 1 atmosphere, which if my physics is right, that’s the vacuum of space (could be wrong)
There are ways of mould-making without using vacuum equipment, but try to avoid doing it that way.

In chamber -

The mould will begin to rise - make sure you have enough space in your container to allow the mould to expand at least twice in volume. Once it reaches it’s peak it will begin to bubble and look as though it is boiling before starting to drop back down. Two minutes later it is ready to take out of the chamber (use this waiting time to check your carrier for any gaps in sealant)

I have placed the carrier on the floor for this part, as you want to pour the mould from as high up as you can to allow any stubborn leftover bubbles to burst (a precaution, really, but with mould it is better to be safe than sorry) Pour into an empty space in the carrier, try to avoid pouring directly onto the sculpt. Be patient, and allow the mould to rise up and fill every nook and cranny.

Ahem. A purposeful error, to show that you should always plug up any holes.

And here is the finished mould. All poured and ready for a 24 hour wait until it can be demolded.
If you can give it a good two days curing time before you demold, that’s always good. Some Silicones are provided with faster curing agents, some as quick as 4 hours.
Keep it somewhere with a rough 20 degree temp, and avoid moving it.

**** Part two - De-molding and Casting - will follow soon ****