One of my last projects of the semester involved creating typographic narratives that lived somewhere out in the real world. As often happens to me with projects like this, I was way more interested in the system of producing my pieces than I was in my ultimate message. I spent weeks developing a method to make rubber molds so that I could make castings of the negative space around letterforms, and finally came up with a process that I really liked:
- Cut forms out..
I used sheets of pink insulation foam (around $12 for a six foot sheet at Home Depot) because it was inexpensive, easy to cut, and water resistant. I made a template in Illustrator, traced it out on the foam with marker, and then used a small jewelers saw to cut it out. I was going for a rough-hewn look, so the imperfections of this process were exactly what I wanted. Note that this is a positive of the ultimate shape I want to cast.
- Mount forms to a base.
I built a shadowbox-style frame around the form, using “planks” cut from the same sheet of foam, and held together with masking tape.
- Pour the mold!
I used a mold-making rubber called OOMOO 30. I picked it because the supply store here on campus stocks it, and because of this video. If Martha can do it, I sure as hell can!
- Make a cast!
Now that you have a mold, you can pretty much pour whatever you want in there. Plaster, concrete, wax, soap, water (make ice molds in the freezer!), jell-o, cupcake batter — you name it. Be super careful pulling out the hardened cast from the mold, especially if your original has as many curves and undercuts as mine did. - Play.
Take your new mold outside and play with it!
2 Comments
Very cool!
Cool! This technique could be useful in a zillion different ways. Thanks for the tutorial!