By David E. Parvin, A.L.I.  - Sculpture Journal December 2000

Unless you are so well established that you are immune to a downturn, you have to be aware of and affected by the current softness in the art market. I suspect that the only beneficiaries are collectors; it has to be a buyers’ market. Those of us who create, manufacture, or sell art are carrying on the best we can in lean times. We sculptors have an especially difficult path to follow because of the high “development” cost in bringing a new piece to market. Consider the painter who only has to purchase a canvas, some paint, and a frame and in some relatively short amount of time has something that might be turned into cold hard cash. We sculptors also have to purchase raw materials, but our creations often ta

Alginate, that odd substance derived from seaweed, has several uses. Sure, you can use it as food supplement and for dental casts. Of course, those are the less interesting uses.

Let's talk about the fun way you can use alginate: alginate casting!

Alginate is one of the safest ways you can make molds and castings of people's hands, feet, faces, or even bodies. Since it's made out of seaweed, there are small odds of an allergic reaction.

That makes it a great choice for your next casting project. Since you want the best possible results, let's jump right into the tips.

1. Prep Your Work Area

Before you mix a thing or drop your prisoner -- oh, we meant volunteer -- onto a stool, you must prep your work area.

You

How To Make Unique Candles. Hello, mold makers and crafters I should warn you, in this two-part video, you are not going to see genetic mold making advice. Instead, I’m going to reveal little-known mold making and casting tips to make the candle making the process a snap and provide you with amazing results.

This is EnvironMolds where you can learn to reproduce anything . . . and so let’s dive right in.

CANDLE MAKING

Making candles can be a great hobby that is very easy to learn. It does not require a lot of tools and you will quickly be able to make some excellent products such as bees wax. Candle making is a fun, too, especially when the designs are your own . . . unique and different. Those are the ones most appreciated as gifts and always sell better than traditional style candle tappers.

How To Make Unique Candles. Hello, mold makers and crafters I should warn you, in this two-part video, you are not going to see genetic mold making advice. Instead, I’m going to reveal little-known mold making and casting tips to make the candle making the process a snap and provide you with amazing results.

This is EnvironMolds where you can learn to reproduce anything . . . and so let’s dive right in.

CANDLE MAKING

Making candles can be a great hobby that is very easy to learn. It does not require a lot of tools and you will quickly be able to make some excellent products such as synthetic bees wax. Candle making is a fun, too, especially when the designs are your own . . . unique and different. Those are the ones most appreciated as gifts and always sell better than traditional style candle tappers.

Now you can stop guessing. This video teaches the mold maker how to easily calculate the precise amount of mold material needed to eliminate waste or material shortages.

CANDLE MAKING

Making candles can be a great hobby that is very easy to learn. It does not require a lot of tools and you will quickly be able to make some excellent products. Candle making is a fun, too, especially when they are unique and different. Those are the ones most appreciated as gifts and seem to sell better than traditional style candles. In our example we are using a small and highly detailed statue of an Asian woman dressed in many centuries’ old garb.

The first thing we do is to make a silicone rubber mold using ArtMolds’ MoldRite 25 silicone. Once the mold is made we will pour beeswax into it to create a number of copies of this interesting candle design. Using a hot glue gun, we secure the statue to a piece of foam board. We then cut a piece of transparent mailing tube to fit over the statue allowing a half inch clearance between the tube and statue.

The tab is centered over the statue on the foam board and hot glued all the way around.

You can immediately distinguish the talented lifecasting artist from the novice by a glance at the eyes. That is the eyes of the face or portrait casting. As even a beginning life casting artist can pull of a passable face casting with little to no experience. The face with its closed eyes is about as inspirational as a death mask. Such as the face castings made by European undertakers for their deceased clients in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were important memorials at the time, since photography had not yet taken hold. A plaster mold was made of the departed ‘s face and then a plaster or wax cast was made from the mold. Today the technique is more advanced in the use of skin safe products such as alginate and silicone, but sadly the results are most often the same. A duplicate of the face or head in an eyes-closed reposed position – leading the viewer wondering if the subject is asleep, bored or no longer with us.

David Parvin, sculptor, life casting artist, author and life casting instructor demonstrates how to life cast a clothed figure using alginate molding.

Life casting perfect ears tutorial: This video explains the two methods most frequently used to cast perfect since ears are very difficult to cast due to their delicateness. The first method is that used be special F/X artist and the second method which was developed by the late Dave Parvin is used successfully in life casting.

Sodium Silicate Uses: In this video, we show the amazing Uses of Sodium Silicate / Water Glass in industrial to our daily life. It is also known as liquid glass and is used as a concrete sealer, a defloculent in ceramics, a coagulant, cardboard adhesive, soil stabilizer,, chimney sealer and in many other industries.

Getting To Know Water Glass

Water glass is nothing but sodium silicate that finds many a use in both art studios and manufacturing industries. It carries various benefits and the applications are surprisingly varied as well.

You must have heard of water glass that is often used in art studios for various ancillary tasks. Some artists may mention that they use this liquid as an easy deflocculant when making clay slips, while some may manipulate