Experimenting with Molding

My first molds were just impressions in plasticine, the plasticine picked up the detail of the surfaces well and picked up some dust and paint but it did not really give any feeling for the space:



After attending an introduction to the workshop I became interested in using alginate, a natural molding material used by dentists to take impressions of patients teeth. It is a completely natural and non harmful method of molding and is often used for casting body parts for prosthetics. My first mold was of a cast iron fireplace. The mold did not come off in one piece as it stuck to the paint on the fireplace and in some places has pulled off the paint altogether. I left the mold on a sheet of paper after photographing it and noticed that within a few hours it had started to dry out and curl up. This is an image of the mold after I first removed it from the fireplace and also when it had dried:



I continued to experiment with molding different areas of the house, some were more successful than others. I think the wood carving worked best as the mold stayed in one piece and picked up all the detail but I think the ones that have fallen apart and picked up some of paint and dust are the more interesting:





I would like to document the proccess of the molds drying and try to capture an element of time passing. I also want to try casting one of the molds and am thinking about using wax to do this. At my tutorial we also discussed using film or audio to add another dimension to the molds, I haven't decided exactly how I want to do this yet but I like the idea of recording the sounds of the house.