January 25th, 2009
As I promised myself, I am staying true to my semester long to do list for my senior thesis project. Week 2 and week 3- work with resin and catalyst. The supplies that I chose to work with are: 1. Castin’ Craft Clear liquid plastic casting resin 2. Castin’ Craft Catalyst (Hardening agent). 3. Castin’ Craft clear molds. 4. Freeman wax release. 5. Cheap throw away. Resin. Catalyst. Wax. Molds. Object. Over the weekend, I started working on a prototype for the project mentioned in the previous blog. The process of using resin is delicate and is generally completed in steps (layers). So now, I am struggling with how I am going to stabilize the camera inside the mold- in order to have camera (2 pieces) centered in mold prior to addition of resin and after application. The mold that will hold the resin and the camera until resin is dry, is a mold made out of birch wood. The box is not my larger than the camera itself, but it is large enough to cover camera in resin all around. The starting process of using the resin is to figure out the ratio between resin and catalyst (instructions for catalyst come with item). The second step is to wax the mold on the inside with the Freeman Wax release. Depending on how large the item and mold are, the settling and drying time will vary. Now, over the next week, I will be focusing solely on working with East Tech so I can finish cutting the cameras.
