Wax, Sculpture, Photography , Print and the occasional bit of Painting.
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Exploring Acetate Alternatives
After listening to expert advice given to me by technicians at BCU, it appears that Polydraw and Mark Resist are both plastic containing materials, meaning that both alternatives have the potential to produce air bubbles.
As an alternative, the material that is having the most positive result at the moment is oil coated copy paper (with images pre-photocopied onto paper).
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Alternatives to Acetate
Polydraw
Mark Resist
Oil on paper
Fabric
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A moment of realisation...
Acetate- the material that has been used to print my images onto. The material that allows the dimension to be added to my wax blocks- the material that is causing the air bubbles!
Under heat, it expands and as it cools, it contracts, thus causing a bubbles!
As a result, I need to find a suitable alternative to acetate.
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Paraffin wax- heated in a Bain Marie and set in a vinyl mould. Still some surface imperfections occurred on top of acetate images.
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Soya Wax... It’s so much softer than paraffin or microcrystalline so when it’s wet it gives a beautiful translucent effect but when dried, it is waxy to the touch and really brittle. It loses its translucency and becomes completely opaque. They layers are a problem too!
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Doing the same thing... over again!
Having had moderate success with paraffin wax but no success with soya wax (see proceeding images), microcrystalline wax is up next for exploration. In its pellet form, it looks an exact clone of paraffin. But what I want to find out is how it differs once it has been melted, poured then set in a mould. It has a higher melting point than paraffin wax, therefore instinct tells me it will cool slower. Again, this should aid the elimination of air bubbles. As Rachel Whiteread does, I’m using the same method over agin- just refining them to achieve the desired effect.
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Rachel Whiteread offers positivity when things aren’t quite going to plan!
"Since my career started, I've basically done the same thing over and over again. I mean that in a positive way. I think that's what good art is – the same process and research, but refining your strategy."
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The first wax casting...
The last time I was in the workshop I poured my vinyl mould. Today was the moment of truth- had it been a successful pour?
Thankfully, yes, it had! Although that said, as I peeled the vinyl away from the wooden block, much of the varnish had transferred from the outside of he wooden block to the inside of the vinyl mould. This left a sticky residue, which needed to be removed. Swarfega hand scrub and water only removed so much varnish so unfortunately, the first few pours of wax into the mould were mottled with wood varnish.
Once the wax was poured into the mould, it took a lot longer to set than I anticipated. In the past, when I’ve poured into metal moulds, the wax set almost immediately- this causing the air bubbles. This time, it was 10 minutes after the pour when the wax started to cloud on the surface. Following this, it was a further 10 minutes when it appeared less translucent and had lost most of its heat. It was almost an hour before removing the first cast from the mould. Success!
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Vinyl mould production- Using a temperature controlled heat pot, vinyl ( which I first cut into small cubes that resembled cheese!) was heated to 160 degrees centigrade and melted to liquid vinyl. This took around an hour to do and I found that regular stirring helped to promote melting. Turning up the heat had little benefit in aiding the speed of the melting process- instead, I found that it began to burn the vinyl. It appears that the key to all future material melting is low and slow!
Once the vinyl was melted, it was slowly poured over the frame (in the above image) and left around 3 hours to set. The frame was removed and I was left with a moult that I can now pour wax into.
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Expert knowledge is everything!
I attended a lecture with my tutor a week or so ago. Thankfully, and as expected, she is very knowledgeable in the subject area that I am exploring.
So it turns out that the reason I keep getting air bubbles in my end pieces could be down to something as simple as me heating the wax to too high a temperature that the wax is cooling too slowly.
My next exploration will be to use a Bain Marie to melt the wax. This will ensure that the temperature doesn't exceed 100 degrees centigrade. As a result of this, the wax should cool quicker, thus producing fewer air bubbles.
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