jigginpig Posted September 22, 2017 Report Share Posted September 22, 2017 (edited) Hi everyone, I hope all is well. I started working on a master blank to mold the other day. I was happy with the gills on one side, but not the other. The master was carved from basswood, which is a bad idea as many of you know (because of the soft, fibrous nature of the wood) and re-carving the area was out of the question. So I sliced off the bad part, and cut off the eyes while I was at it. In for a penny in for a pound, as they say. At any rate, some of you have no doubt resorted to re-building the ugly spots on carved masters with plumber's putty epoxy. As you know, it is very sticky before it sets, and once it sets it becomes rock hard and is much more difficult to work than wood. I try to get it into a rough approximation of the final shape before it sets, but again, this is a challenge because it sticks to the tools I use to shape it. Then I had an idea... Many different substances will not stick to polyethylene. I went and got a sandwich bag out of the kitchen and cut it into several small squares. I placed the squares over the area I was working, and used my normal clay tools to shape the epoxy very nicely through the clear bag. It will still require a small amount of finish work, but it will be very easy to do because it is 95% finished already. I intend to utilize this method for detail on baits going forward. One application that occurred to me was for scales. If you don't use enough hardener, the epoxy still sets, but the working time is much longer. If you don't require strength in a master, only detail, a thin layer of under-hardened putty epoxy could be troweled onto the bait, and scales could be imprinted through the sandwich bag. Just a guess, I have not tried it, but I bet it would work fine. There are also all the fine, nearly subliminal details in the gill plates that show on cast replicas of real fish, but are difficult to get right on a carving due to the grain of the wood. You could use this method to get those fine lines and textures. Obviously they are concealed under any topcoat, but pearls and light effects still show under the finish, and I think they add an impressive degree of realism, if only for us to appreciate. Cheers all. SS Edited September 22, 2017 by jigginpig 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
