We Ride into Valhalla…
Bare with me here, I promise this is something to do with photography.
This week I’ve been slowly prepping for some additional photography for my exhibition portfolio that I’m hoping to get done as soon as I can book some studio time at TAFE. If you read my previous blog post you will have seen one of the pieces from that collection as part of my submission to the WA Photographic Salon 2022, and what I didn’t mention is that it’s only one out of five pieces needed for the work at the end of the year.
All that being said I wanted to get it all done and over with so I could move on with other work and use these images as part of another collection of work for a cyanotype projects, which may also end up being my exhibition piece as well, however my lecturer wasn’t entirely happy with what would have been my fifth piece… and I need to do more shooting.
Two of the planned shots that failed involved the same imagery but with a head and with hands, unfortunately the gloves I made just didn’t work. The highly reflective material used for the rest of the clothing is in fact plastic with absolutely no stretch in it whatsoever, and using that in ones of the most frustratingly hard pieces of clothing to scratch build is near impossible… as I found out.
The gloves just didn’t fit my hands even after giving as much room as possible and they just ended up looking like badly made oven mittens and even trying to puppet just looked like a flaccid rag. So I bought some cheap mannequin hands of aliexpress and figured I would cover them with the same material. After a couple of experiments this just didn’t seem plausible for a variety of reason, so I went with a different option and it allowed me to finally experiment with a paint I’ve been dying to use… Molotow Chrome!
Molotow Chrome on the left, Gloss black on the right.
For those that aren’t aware it can be incredibly frustrating to get a high chrome effect from paint so after watching Adam Savage’s Tested I’ve been wanting to try this one out for years. For best high shine mirror effects you need a clean smooth surface painted with a high gloss black for best results, I admittedly wasn’t needing that level of fidelity but I tried my best to get a good paint job for the chrome to go onto to, and frankly I’m impressed with this paint.
Here’s the rub, it’s not cheap. A 30ml refill bottle was AU$50, but it’s ready to airbrush and it’s coverage was amazing and was able to get usage out of literal every drop. That being said it looks like the reflection is going to be more then enough for the technique I’m using, however there will always be some experimentation with it to make sure it works right and some tinkering to make it fit the series.
But what about the head you see being typed before you… well…
Chrome Dome
So first thing you need to know about painting styrofoam, especially if you plan on using spray paint, is you need to seal it and try and seal it well. I was using a PVA glue based foam sealant called ‘Haters Tears’ developed by my friend Jon Goon for foam sealing, and it works more or less on styrofoam. The only problem with the material is it is extremely porous and absorbs moisture like nobodies business, hence why you need to seal it or use a lot of paint if that’s the effect you want.
I gave this about six layers of foam sealant and whilst it’s still somewhat textured, by choice because it isn’t going to be in focus, it still has some points where the spray paint got through the pin holes from the porous material and dissolved it. However this was to be expected and if this was needed to be a perfectly smooth pieces with absolutely no blemishes then I would have puttied or use a different approach.
Sometimes you just don’t need to chase perfection and somethings you just need a project to help you gain insight into a process. I’m not 100% sure what the cure time on this paint is, it does flash off pretty quick but I’m not sure how long it needs to fully cure, but I’ll be leaving these pieces at least overnight to cure before I even think about touching them. Then it’s touch ups and shortening the handles for ease of use and transport.
S
