El Dave Photography

WARNING: You must wear a hard hat for this blog post.

Here's a little behind the scenes look at one of the sets I'm working on for upcoming shoots. One of my goals has been to really focus on building a new and improved studio space where I can have elaborate sets and experiment with new techniques. To that end, I've started ordering plaster molds from Hirst Arts. The first one to come in was mold #301 "Starship Wall Mold" and I couldn't be more pleased with it!

Initial pre-mold prep:


I'm soaking the mold in a solution of tap water and Jet Dry rinse agent to decrease the surface tension. This lets the plaster flow down into the cracks and crevices, giving you a better finished piece.

The fun bit:


The first time I poured the plaster, I was way too high up and plaster splashed everywhere. Make sure you do this in a clean area (more clean than my desk). You don't want to be finding dried plaster months from now!

Scrape smooth:


Using my scraper, I wipe the excess away. This is the part I like the least, to be honest. The container says the plaster sets in 20-30 minutes, but my first run resulted in soft, easily broken bricks that I had a difficult time removing from the mold. I've found that giving it a full hour is perfect.

Pop out the pieces:


He he he! Look at the pieces!

Test assembly:


Each piece is flat and smooth, so they're easy to assemble in as many different ways as you can imagine. I just stacked these pieces into an impromptu wall section to see how they look. As you can see, the detail is great! I'm really very impressed with how the pieces turned out.

Let's put it all together now:


What do you think? Are you as impressed with these blocks as I am?
I can't wait to see how they look painted!

Be good,
-Dave

it came across the land
like the spanish influenza

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