Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Horn for a Unicorn

I am busy busy busy working on my final project for my Fiber Arts Certificate.   I have always been interested in taxidermy and faux taxidermy and decided to make my final piece a unicorn.  But with a twist of course which I can't tell you about yet but will show you photos when it is all done.

What makes a unicorn a unicorn?  Why the horn of course!  I am making the head of the unicorn needle felted wool over a styrofoam and steel base but I needed to make a horn.  Wood?  Wool? I settled on resin.  I had to carve a model out of clay and then make a silicone mold over it and finally cover it with a plaster mother mold before casting.

I made a lot of samples and tests.  The first resin I used (Which I have a lot of that I need to figure out how to use up soon before it goes bad.) comes out too yellow and is supposed to be either colored in the pot or painted afterwards.  I didn't want to paint the horn so I used a different resin from Smooth On that ended up being a nice white.  There was a big seam line on the horn that I cleaned up with my Dremel, but the whole thing still needs to be polished and sanded a little more.  

Safety first!  I had to use this super duper respirator for all the resin casting and a dust mask for the plaster and then the sanding of the horn.   
My neighbors must think I am crazy.  It's been so nice out in the upper 70's that I just open up the garage door and work on the driveway.  Less than 3 weeks to finish my project!  Yikes!

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