Plan Ahead or Plan 4 Heads

While discovering the fantastic things that could be created with cast resin, I decided I wanted to do a complicated cast of a life-sized head.  This piece would be entitled "Four Generations".  The tricky part was to include all four heads in one piece.  My plan was to cast a small baby head, a young boys head, a young mans head, and an old mans head.  I was familiar with the wax model, plaster of Paris mold process so started.  After shaping the babies head, it was coated with plaster and set to dry.  Removal of the wax was accomplished by heating the mold and letting the melted wax drain out through a hole in the base.  The babies head was cast in a dark brown resin, poured through the hole in the base of the mold.  To eliminate overheating a conservative amount of catalyst was mixed with the resin and small batches were poured over a considerable amount of time.  I had learned the hard way that large pours create excessive heat and crack the resin casting.

When cool and solid the plaster mold was chipped away from the resin head.  The babies head was cleaned and set aside.  Modeling the boys head had to be scaled large enough to accommodate the baby head in the same mold.  Do you see the pattern evolving; model the head, cast the mold on it, melt out the wax, suspend the previous cast head in the mold, cast the resin of the next head around it, remove the mold, etc.  I thought I had a winner and could hardly waite until that last cast of the old man came out of the mold and was polished up.  To my dismay the three heads inside didn't show up clearly even though I had used a different colored resin for each of them.  The main problem was the many wrinkles in the old mans face distorted the inner images.  I tried focusing a light on the head from different angles which helped a small amount.  Below are photos of the head in different poses.  You be the judge.  The baby is in dark brown, the boy is in red and the man is in blue.

I would like to try this project again and use very smooth stylized heads or similar objects.  I have also thought of casting each object so that they protrudes at different amounts below the base.  Light travels through cast resin and highlights the edges.  If light was concentrated on one objects end at the base it would in theory highlight that objects edges.

Well, as they say,"back to the drawing board".  Ideas are welcome on this unsolved project and credit will be noted to those who solve it.

E-mail is: apatchablue3@comcast.net
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