So I left off here above with half the mothermold, with intake registration holes, that was poured around half my latex covered corbel and was ready to form up second half of the mothermold.
Here I have build the form for the second side of the mothermold. Before pouring I will coat all of the surface of the first side with olive oil to prevent the two sides from sticking.
Here it is with the second side poured. Now a little drying time!
Strip off the form and now we have a two piece split apart mothermold that will fit back together perfectly holding the empty latex rubber mold inside it for casting.
Now comes the fun part… I take the mothermold still together and roll it upside down revealing the clay that is actually the beginning point of my original clay sculpture.
Now we begin digging out all the clay. We are digging in reverse from the bottom of our sculpture to the front or face. The clay will peel away from the latex but it is in every crook and cranny. Take your time and be very careful not to cut or scar the latex. Once you get deeper you can begin to visualize the deeper parts of your sculpture. No need to get every little piece in the cracks, we will wash all that out later. The best tool for digging and not damaging the latex is a loop wire tool pictured below.
Another thing I do is save all my clay back into a ziplock and mist it down with water to use again for my next creation. When you begin the latex coatings leaving that one inch flange border around the perimeter of your piece you actually seal off any air from your clay preserving it perfectly. Keep digging until your about 3/4 of the way down and you can the begin to gently tug at the latex away from the mothermold causing more clay to release.
When most of the clay is removed it’s time to take a flat headed screwdriver and tap it softly with a hammer up and down the seams. It will begin to separate and gently spread open. Tap, and take your time, it will separate. If the latex is bound up in places keeping you from spreading apart both sides of the mothermold just reach down inside and pull latex out and away from those areas.The latex when properly applied and cured can take a good stretching. Work at it slowly and the entire latex mold will completely release from both sides of the mothermold. Now you can rinse your latex mold with cold water, even turn it inside out and spray out until its all nice and clean.
Lay each side of the mothermold over on its sides to inspect, clean off, and to help finish dry curing.
To ready your mothermold simply align two halves a couple inches apart and place your clean latex mold down inside and over into one side of the mothermold. Slowly close the two halves together while feeling down inside every so often to make sure the latex shell is fitting back into its proper place and not being pinched outside the mothermold.
Once latex is back in its place inside the mothermold and the two halves are back together it can stay locked together snugly by running twine or rope or tape around it to hold it together temporarily. Now it’s time to pour our first casting! Onward to Part III.