...everything on this site is more or less under a permanent state of construction...
Small Sun Faces
Small Sun Face Collection
At the time of this writing (August, 2024), the image to the right shows the current collection, most of which were made during the winter of 2017-18. Some of the molds (& subsequent castings) bear a few minor scars courtesy of the evolutionary process of my mold-making technique, which isn't exactly static over time.
The images displayed here represent the original clay models (prior to the mold-making phase).
Individuals interested in trying their hand at a little "DIY" can take a look at a short tutorial on making highly detailed, quality silicone molds from caulking. This tutorial gives the basic outline of a reasonably reliable approach to mold-making (i.e. nothing "experimental").
Pieces may be made with gray or white cement, and can be colored with a variety of pigments. As a general rule, each piece is finished with a coat of UV-resistant, acrylic concrete sealer. If placed outside, exposure to the elements will weather the surface, so it is always recommended to reapply sealer on an as-needed basis.
The following images are of a few of the celtic-themed items which were designed and molded around the time I first began working with concrete. Even though the silicone molds for these items are nearly twenty years old, they still function quite well. Admittedly, they've not been used continuously and have, at times, spent years collecting dust.
Over time, making castings solely from silicone rubber molds becomes a little too constraining if one merely wants a single item from a single casting. Toward that end, from time to time some effort has been put toward working out a reliable way to use inexpensive, single-use molds. Following, are some castings made using plaster molds during a period (circa 2012-2015) when I was still trying to figure out how to consistently sculpt faces. Plaster isn't free, but it's a damn sight cheaper than silicon rubber. It does require a fairly different approach (e.g. plaster is very rigid, it's brittle, it's highly absorbent, etc.), but over time, with enough tinkering, generally one can arrive at a fairly reliable technique for realizing more or less consistently acceptable results. Some of the pieces turned out well enough that I made silicone rubber molds from them, which required more tinkering, since making molds from concrete models (as opposed to plaster or clay) requires a very different mold-release technique/agent (something for which I have yet to achieve any real satisfaction ... it's a work in progress at the time of this writing, 2019:\).
The following pieces were made during a phase (circa 2012-2015) when I was trying to develop a greater facility for sculpting faces. Ancillary to this work, a bit of effort was also put toward trying to develop a reliably consistent technique using single-use, plaster molds. All of the pieces below were originally cast in molds made of molding plaster (silicone rubber molds were subsequently made from a few of the resulting concrete castings).
As an illustration of starting points, the following is an image of the earliest attempts at making sun faces (circa late 90's & early 00's). The more elaborate rays in some of the pieces were largely an effort to compensate for less than optimal sculpting.
