Old school meets Hi-Tech

I've a fair bit to talk about this week as it's been such an exciting time recently, so plan to blog a few times over the next few days.

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Last week I attending a seminar at Demontfort University in Leicester. The seminar was all about Custom Fit Rapid Prototyping. I'll try not to get too boring about this as I find it fascinating, but basically Rapid Prototyping is a tool that some engineering companies, car manufacturers etc use to make a prototype part from a computer file. It's simply "printing in 3D", where a laser "prints" an outline onto a layer of material (plastic, wax, metal etc) and then prints another layer on top, then another and another and another and eventually it builds up into a full 3D model, which can then be cast using conventional methods.

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The flip-side of rapid prototyping is called "reverse engineering"; say a part needs replacing on an antique car, the part is no longer manufactured. in order to make a new part that will math the original perfectly, a laser is used to "scan" the part, then the virtual computer model that is generated by the laser's information is edited if required (say the old part was worn, the computer model would be edited to restore it to the original shape) and then a prototype part is "printed" and a new part cast.

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Here is an image showing this process taking place; I took along a copy of Fly Fishing to the seminar and asked if they could demonstrate the equipment using the medallion as an example. Well, they agreed and here is the scanning taking place:

You can just see on the computer screen in the photo, the computer model being generated by the laser as it scans. It was incredibly fascinating to watch my sculpture recreated in virtual space!

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And here is the result! Coincidentally my day-job involves computer generated 3D models, so I was able to take the data from the seminar demonstration and transfer it into 3D Studio max, the program I use at work. Using this program I can manipulate the virtual model and "try on" any material I fancy, which is hugely useful to me as this means I can try out different variations before actually casting them, which will save me costly materials and duff models.

This render (image) was generated 100% on computer, using the scanned data to make a 3D model then applying a material, in this case a shiny metal. Admittedly the scanned model has lost a fair amount of detail compared to the original sculpture, this is partly due to the scan being a rushed demo.

If I chose to pay to have this done, instead of been a bit cheeky and asked for a demo during a seminar, it would have cost me around £500 ($1000). the laser scanner and software retails at over £90,000 ($180k) so I can't see this becoming a regular feature of my hobby/business, but I found it all so interesting I felt I had to share!

Above is another example - this is a copy with a frosted glass material applied. I also get to play with patterns, like this:

What a week!

Whewy!! This has been a crazy week indeed! On Tuesday evening I decided it was time to let my old, dead, USB card go. It stopped working last month, taking with it all of my sales data and all of my reference photos for Jasper. Silly me didn't have a back-up so I spent several weeks trying to rebuild the information, frantically getting in touch with people who had bought models from me recently to see if they'd got them or not and going through every cast I have left of all my sculptures, trying to work out which were outstanding. Well, when I went to throw the card in the bin, Adam (my OH) said I should destroy it first, just in case ('cos you never know...!), I agreed and we started dismantling it. Now this card was different to the more normal USB Keys in that it had a miniature hard drive complete with little laser inside that had got damaged when I must have knocked it. So there I was, digging away with a minitaure screwdriver, trying to scratch the teeny little disc inside, when something went pop and the little laser arm whirred into a new position. "Hmm", I thought, "I wonder..." so, I tentatively plugged it into the computer, and.... there were my files!!!! So, I quickly grabbed the most important ones and copied them to the PC, inevitably after a few minutes the hard drive breathed it's last breathe and died, this time for good. BUT - I had my most iportant files back, yippeeee!!! Whilst I was trying to decipher the old information with the new, I received an email from the RESS Yahoo Group, announcing the results of the RESS Bas Relief Contest. Well, this news has been long and eagerly awaited since I entered back in April so I immediately clicked the link to see!. I'm a great fan of RESS, I'm increasingly realising just what an important, and wonderful organization it is! I've enjoyed participating in previous competitions by voting for my favourite models, but hadn't entered one until the Bas Relief Contest. For just $25 a year (or $40 if you are a business) you can enter all of the competitions and challenges at a discounted rate, earn RESS Bucks by contributing to the Bi-Annual newsletter (the last one was 190 pages long!!), have potential to earn RESS Scholarships, Grants and Awards and use their logo to show the world you're a part of something so special. I entered the Brass/Bronze copy of Fly Fishing and the TIBBP Mare and Foal Medallion into this competition. At the time, the TIBBP medallion was in America being cast by Resins By Randy for TIBBP, so I could only submit photos of the model whilst it was in-progress (Randy was to finish it with the lettering). The Fly Fishing medallion that I chose to enter was a slightly CM'd copy with the circular base removed, and cast in two metals; brass and bronze. I've listed the results below to try to make some sense of them myself, as I've found it difficult to work it out: Fly Fishing:

• Sculpture - 1st Place
• The Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Minkiewicz Studios LLC award for "Celebrating the Spirit of Equus", the prize for this is this beautiful medallion
• The Lesli Kathman Blackberry Lane Pottery award for "Best Narrative", the prize for this is this beautiful medallion
• The Karen Gerhardt Westerly Design award for "Excellence in Composition", the prize for this being a $50 Cafepress Certificate (it was cash, but I chose to spend it at the Cafepress store)

TIBBP Mare and Foal Medallion:

• In-Progress - 1st Place - the prize for this being a $50 Cafepress Certificate (not Dick Blick as listed in the original show details, as I'm in the UK.
• People's Choice Awards - 1st Place in Advanced -the prize for this is an exclusive blank RESS Medallion - this award made me feel extremely proud, as this particular medallion was born from a highly emotional journey I have taken with The International Blessed Broodmare Project, and was influenced by some very special people and horses. The fact that my fellow hobbyists could see this too was quite a feeling!
• RESS Member Awards - 1st Place in Advanced - the prize for this being a $50 Cafepress Certificate (same reason as above)

I didn't have any placings in the finishwork classes (Advanced, Novice and the Sommer Prosser Juror Medallion Showcase, for which Sommer had provided a beautiful medallion of a fancy circus pony). With painting not being my forte I chose not to enter, but the level of quality that was in this section was something else!! Liz Shaw's incredible Feral Mare medallion (sculpted by SMB) won 1st place in the Advanced Finishwork section, and Linda Simmerling (I can't find a link for her sadly) won 1st place in the Novice Finishwork section with her very cute Pony medallion (Sculpted by by Kristi Sawin). Liz Shaw also won the Lynn Fraley Laf'nBear Studio LLC award for "Most Soul", she won a beautifully crafted keepsake box with a crackle-glazed Fraley design tile adorning it. Carol Huddleston won both 2nd place in the Advanced Finishwork category, and The Jenn Danza Danza Studio award for "Media That Elevates", for this she won a custom made vase with a lovely pony cameo, crafted by Jenn Danza. Elaine Lindelef won 1st place in the Novice In-Progress Sculpture section, and 1st Place in the RESS Member Awards Novice section. For these wins she will receive $50 vouchers and an exclusive blank RESS medallion. CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who entered the competition, I look forward to seeing the in-progress works completed, and to taking part in many more RESS Events! Entry to this competition cost just $35, so as you can see from the above, the value-for-money for RESS events is very, very good! So, back to the story - the third thing that happened on Tusday evening; After reading the results I was...rather excited, to say the least, so after seeing my name up in lights, realising just how incredible the prizes were and making a fair few involuntary whooping noises, I ran downstairs to tell Adam all about this. The wonderful part of this story is that, as I told Adam about the results and he saw just how much this all meant to me, I began to see a change in his expression - now Adam is supportive of my work and very patient with me when my hobby intrudes a little too far into everyday life, but I now know that he really knows just how important the hobby is to me, and how seriously us hobbyists take our artwork. This was the best prize of all.

It's the casting freak show!!

I love casting; the possiblities seem endless and it makes a very satisfying mess (not sure the o/h is overly happy about that but ho hum, never mind). The most wonderful thing about casting is that just when you think you've covered everything there is to know, some exciting information or a new material finds it's way to you and gives you something new to try! . Some of these methods work, some don't. Some turn into complete disasters or totally gross me out, but some work wondefully and inspire me to keep on trying all these new things. . So, recently I found out that for (cold) casting bronze models, which I thought I was actually pretty good with, you are actually supposed to "cook" the bronze before you cast with it. Bronze is a lovely colour and when polished it shines very nicely, but by cooking it, the bronze darkens and gives a beautiful array of hues and shades, adding depth and... reassurance to the model. I can't think of a more appropriate word, but to look at a model cast with this heated/cooled bronze is somehow reassuring, perhaps because of the aged look it gives, I don't know, but I do know I'll be doing a fair bit more cooking from now on, hehe! .

Bronze being heated; pictured as it began to change colour

It's not just the traditional kind of casting that I've been up to either - I recently found an intriguing substance that enables you to "grow" your models! Up until now the only way I knew of to change the size of a sculpture was to take it to a professional company with hi-tech equipment - they would scan the model using a laser, edit the model using 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software and then "print" a copy in the desired scale by printing layer upon layer of a special plastic type ink to build up a new full 3D model (they cen even mirror a sculpture aka Karen Gerhardt's china "Halfling" Boreas!). Incredible, but expensive! . This new "resin" I've found got me very excited as the above route isn't one I can afford to pursue, but this is much more within reason. Inevitably, it is a nightmare to work with; it gels* in about 30 seconds making air-bubbles a certainty; it grows at an incosistent rate so is liable to split; takes over 2 weeks to get to full size and once cured it is very fragile, the top horse lost it's ear as I demolded it even though I was very careful. The first attempt, whilst not a 100% success, has me optimistic though, I only made this model out of curiosity and it has since been destroyed (this stuff doesn't last very long either, it's not a permanent medium), but it was fun to see my Fly Fishing model at twice it's original size!

Seriously though, I do have a specific use in mind for this stuff and will be experimenting with it as soon as I can, probably once I have the vacuum equipment to help with the tricky fast curing issues. If I can pull off the project I'm hoping to, it'll be worth all the hassle!!

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Now, talking of GROWING models, howsabout SHRINKING models!?! Yes, that's possible too - and here's the project I've been playing with this stuff on:

The black model is an original sized Frodo cast (in Slate), and the brown one is a "Shrinky" version - again, this material is a nightmare to use, gelling* in about 10 seconds, but thankfully, as the model shrinks (a month so far and still shrinking!) the pinhole bubbles in it also shrink, so it has a much better potential for success. I'd love to use this method to get a shrinky Frodo to produce as a fridge magnet, but as the rights to cast Frodo in u/p resin are no longer mine, that may not be possible. . *Gel/Gelling - this is what happens when a material reaches it's "pot life"; the time it takes from mixing the two parts togetter, for the chemical reaction to take place and the material to turn from a liquid state to a jellified state. Once this point has been reached it's too late to pour it and any left in the pot is unusable waste so you need to have poured it into the mold and removed any air bubbles before this time. I once had a model gel whilst I was still removing airbubbles with a fine paintbrush (I get through hundreds of paintbrushes!), the paintbrush end was entombed and whilst the model was then rendered useless it made for an interesting piece of art in itself!

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There's something a bit wrong with this picture....Yep, it's back to front and inside out - this is a photo taken of the reverse side of a Crystal Clear copy of Fly Fishing. I love casting in clear resin, but until I have the vacuum equipment I need I won't be able to get bubble-free copies in it. Once I do, oh I'll be having a LOT of fun with this resin but I couldn't help myself trying out just one copy to start with. I've now started using Smooth-On's clear resin, which is a superior resin to that I've used previously. I can't wait to get experimenting with this stuff, but I must wait until I'm properly equipped. So, as well as the more usual unpainted resin, there are so many different possibilities for finishing a model, each giving the sculpture a new unique style. I'm looking forward to continuing my research into this subject, and hope you'll join me on my little voyage of discovery!