Octopus sculpture

That is quite a piece of art work.
It is surprising how well the wax bends.
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Here is a long boring video of how I bent the tenacles. I heated them evenly with the reptile light so the wax would bend.

 

That is a cool process.
It seems like the wax would get too hot on the exterior and start dripping, and be too cold on the interior and start cracking when bent.
But the stuff is indeed flexible.
Most interesting, and a nice sculpture.

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Yeah the reptile light penetrates the wax quite deeply. It doesn't really heat the wax up from the outside in like flames do. I heated the tentacle up for about 5 mins with the light going back and forth slowly so it had time to warm evenly through the back.

 

Yeah that's why I molded the 1 tentacle in straight position and then bent the waxes around the wood individually. I figured making 8 multi part molds would suck and be expensive. Much easier to just make 1 and bend it as needed.

Also that means I can make more sculptures in the future with the same straight leg.

I found this sculpture which looks pretty cool. Maybe I'll do something like that.

 

Do an octopus with the legs straight and flat out from the body, that way it can be used as a weapon and frisbeed into your opponent like a giant ninja shuriken.

 

Finished up the front side. Nearly finished the under side.

Just need to sprue the kraken up and start coating tomorrow. I think I'll mix up a new batch of slurry for the first two costs, then use my older stuff from the eagle for the last 6 coats.

I was reading up on spalling defects which I've been having a lot. Seems it results from a weak first two layers of shell. Basically if the pH, ratio of binder to powder, too much bacteria, or you throw dry sand on too quickly or too late then the layer is weak and will crumble during burn out or delaminate during pouring and cooling. To be fair, I just eyeball the slurry until I get a consistency I like, so this time I think I'll just follow the directions to the letter. With any luck I will have better castings.

 

Damn he's bigger than I thought and is super cool! Hey that slurry you are running has to be mixed by you right?? Are you running distilled water only with it?

 

Yes distilled only but I just eyeballed it. Added binder until I liked how runny it was. I don't think doing it that way is a good idea. I think I add too much liquid binder.

 

I'm agonizing over the choice of bottom spruing or direct spruing. Partially because bottom spruing requires a lot more sprues than I have and a lot more clean up. And also because I'm just not 100% sure that the tentacles will cast if direct cast. Any opinions?

 

Getting deep on this one buddy. I'm almost afraid to suggest anything in fear of it fing up on ya. Try to reach out to Artospy in France. I trust his judgement when it comes to this hard stuff.

 

I posted this question to Facebook backyard metal casting group. The consensus seemed to be to direct cast it and bottom vent. I think this makes sense. It will also reduce shrinkage issues since the pouring cone will be on the thick end of the tentacle so it will shrink along that access as it draws from the pouring cone rather than the main J sprue.

I'll post pics soon. Nearly done.

Come to think of it. I also poured the eagles direct cast and hippos and they seemed to work out alright.

 

You know the drill, as long as you can get the wax OUTTA THERE! That always seems to be an issue with more complicated shapes.
Remember the old drill the shell trick if you have to; anything to keep it from blowing apart during dewax.

 

Yep. Don't think it will be an issue dewaxing. They aren't as complicated as the flower molds I made before or even the eagle for that matter.

 

Finished spruing the legs. I'll do the octo body tomorrow with one giant sprue coming off the center of its body. Hopefully it will stay liquid long enough to feed the legs and not cause holes.

What do you think?



Spruing nearly killed me. See what I mean...

 

LOL, well these things happen you know, I have seen it in the movies.
"Island of Terror" is the scifi flick that comes to mind, and they had these creatures that would suck the bones right out of your body, and leave a big blob on the ground.
It got cows, people, etc.
I slept with the lights on for a long time after watching that one as a kid.

You are really going all out in this effort.
Its one heck of a complex piece.
Good luck is all I can say.

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AH... the legs individually... That should work fine. Go for it.