Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

[pararaptor]

Hey Everyone,
I'm attaching a few pictures of the mermaid project so far.
I used some pearlized blue and a little green airbrushed on and wiped off a few times to get a stained effect that allows the wood grain to show through, and I attached a mermaids body and splash parts out the end of the bore.
If anyone's interested, I'll post a sequence of photos showing the transition from carved wooden mermaid, to the casting resin model.
This is the way the flute looks at the moment. However, I'm making a short series of cast resin mermaids to emerge from and plunge into the surface of the flute, with water splashes along the way, like a pod of dolphins.
Greg

[Sharon of the Dell]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Greg, it's coming a long wonderfully!
I'm really interested in your casting process from wood to resin.
I did lost wax casting (in silver) in high school and really enjoyed it, even though I could only get one piece that way. Casting is something I'm very interested in.

[AL...]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

That is amasing Greg. I love seeing your flutes and would realy like to see how you went about this one Its something else.
Keep them comming mate

Cheers
AL

[mpounders]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

I would be interested in seeing your process also. The splashing water too!

[Josef]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Magnificent as always. Loooking forward to the progress. Joe.

[pararaptor]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Wellllll now.....I'm glad you all are interested.
I've been away for awhile because there were no replies to this project and I inferred from that that no one was interested in the project or the process.
Now that I see I'm wrong, I'll post some pictures of the process. It was actually quite easy!

I first need to remind that though it's a cast piece at the end of the flute, it's only because I first carved it in wood..
Check back and I'll have a photo series and description. I highly recommend taking a stab at this process too.
Greg

[pararaptor]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

First of all, I had an image in mind after having seen this carving tutorial, and this tutorial on carving water splashes I envisioned a mermaid with more flowing hair, so I modified the pattern.

[pararaptor]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

I then took the pattern and re-sized and remapped the features I wanted to change. I then carved a mermaid from Alaskan yellow cedar and painted it white to reveal places that needed emphasis and other places to remove more wood.

[pararaptor]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

I then made a mold from Apoxie-Sculpt, and subsequently made another one from "Amazing Mold Putty" that worked out much better.
When the cast resin mermaid dried; I sprayed some adhesive to some wedding veil, and applied some gold leaf through it to give a semblance of scales.
I then wadded some plastic wrap and poured casting resin over it to make the water splashes, and tied some knots on monofilament and dipped it in resin for further splashing water effect.

[pararaptor]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

By this point, I had a customer who wanted it, and he wanted a series of waterine looking mermaids going in and out of the surface of the flute like a pod of dolphins (it isn't something I would have done for myself, buuuut....customer's always right).
So I made several more mermaids and cut some to appear emerging and others to be diving along the surface of the flute, with their own respective water splashes.

[Sharon of the Dell]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Thank you Greg for sharing the process.
I think the flute is actually pretty cool.

[Tom Ellis]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Very interesting process Greg, you learned a lot. How does it sound? Kind of gurgley, if that's a word.
You never cease to amaze me with your ideas.

Tom

[macktruck]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Great flute! I really like the water splashes.

[AL...]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

Greg Thanks for sharing the makings of your flute .
It is just stunning I do like the splashes along the instrment They are something else.
Well done on another work of art mate

Cheers
AL

[pararaptor]

Re: Doin' a Mermaid Kinda Thing part 2

I apologize for my late reply and thanks for the comments everyone.
I just finished carving and painting an anaconda flute. I put scales on it the entire length, and maaaan it was tedious!!!
Thanks again for the kind comments.
Greg