Gay CurmudgeonApr 8
FALLEN ANGEL. Della Robia Clay Sculpture, modeled on one of my running buddies, Mike Coffey. Gold Spray Paint, Satin Cloth. 1990s. #art #artwork #arting #artist #sculpture #claysculpture #angel #fallenangel #angelic #satin #mixedmedia #sculptural #running #runningorganization #frontrunners #1990s #burnham #mifflincounty #frontrunners #frontrunnersofstatecollege #statecollege #molding #molded #sculpted #diningroom #interiordecor #interiordecoration #colonialhome #colonialhomes
Show threadSky-haired Miranda 💙🐙Mar 30

What I'm hoping for, basically, is some sort of safe, water-soluble material that I can just melt by heating and/or dissolve it in water, solidify into something somewhat sturdy, and then hydrate again to dissolve it. And I suspect there is a stupidly obvious material, or some basic stuff any DIY or craft enthusiast knows, that just fits that bill and will make me bang my head and say "of course!" when someone mentions it.

Anyone has the idea to make me bang my head?

#3dprinting #molding #making #silicone #diy

Show threadSky-haired Miranda 💙🐙Mar 30

Ideas I've considered for now :

Printed stuff:

  • PVA : On paper, it looks like a great solution! I can print it like the rest of my mold, use it, and then I put it a while in hot water and it dissolves harmlessly. The problem is that PVA is a truly horrible thing to print; I've bought some and spent quite some time and effort on it now, but I haven't managed to print anything significant with it yet. And even if I manage to print something, I'm not sure I want to deal with something that finicky and tedious on a semi-regular basis.
  • BOVH: On paper it's just "luxury PVA". It's supposed to be easier to print (and not as stupidly hygroscopic too) but not that much, and it's expensive enough that it's not a random experiment I look forward to.
  • HIPS: Another thing that looks really nice buut... It dissolves in d-limonene, which, apparently, is also a very popular solvent to dissolve silicone. Game over
  • PLA: Good old PLA is the easiest thing to print ever, and it can be dissolved too, in a variety of solvents and notably ethyl acetate (+ some heat). Ethyl acetate is quite tame and safe as solvents go (it's used, among other things, in "gentle" non acetone nail polish dissolver), it also, apparently, plays quite nice with silicone, and neither PLA nor what it dissolves into are toxic. With a hollow mold where I could pour the acetate to speed up dissolution... There may be something there. Still, I read a lot of stuff about people trying to dissolve PLA and having a lot of issues (especially with newer "enhanced" PLA+, PLA Pro, etc. but not only), it doesn't look like that a straightforward process. Still, with the cheapest, most basic PLA it may be worth a try...

Molded stuff:

  • Soap : Why not ? Plenty of people mold soap, it's as safe as you can be, and it dissolves in water. I just hope it doesn't also dissolves in uncured silicone. Also, I'm a bit afraid it won't be sturdy enough.
  • Wax : quite a popular thing to mold too, and it melts. I'm just concerned about the sturdiness too, and also about getting all of it out of my silicone - it's sticky. But that's an option.
  • Ice: I really want to like that idea, but ice melts at room temperature of course, and low temperature prevents (or slows down) silicone curing.

#3dprinting #molding #making #silicone #diy

Sky-haired Miranda 💙🐙Mar 30

Hi fellow weirdos, I wanted to pick your mind about something.  

The short version is, I'm looking for a material with the following properties:

  • Can be cast in a 3D-printed mold (ideal), or 3D-printed directly. I don't need it to be very smooth, detailed or accurate.
  • Can be fully dissolved in water or some relatively harmless solvent, or molten by reasonable (<100°C) heat
  • Remains somewhat sturdy at room temperature while not dissolved it doesn't have to support any stress, but small (~4mm diameter) parts should be doable and handlable without breaking down
  • Doesn't prevent silicone from curing, or fuck with silicone in any way. (If dissolved chemically, the solvent shouldn't alter cured silicone either.)
  • Isn't toxic - though it doesn't have to be body safe either
  • Doesn't cost an arm and a leg

The full version: I'm making some silicone objects by casting them in a mold. I don't need help with the general casting process, it works. The issue is that I want to create some concave, hollow structures inside the objects, and they have a small opening and are intricate enough that I can't just use a solid mold like I do for the general object shape and unmold it - even with the silicone's flexibility, it would tear the material.

So I'm looking for some sort of material that I could shape, use as a mold, and then dissolve or melt it.

#3dprinting #molding #making #silicone #diy

SplinesFeb 1, 2025
#EvolutionOfScotia

#Scotia is a new concave #molding that we are seeing for the first time in the #IonicOrder. Its #primaryProfileCurve is a compound curve that is always segmented 1/3 and 2/3 from top to bottom. The two segments have different radii, but they also have a common tangent where they meet.

The scotia molding went through some evolutionary stages as shown in the sketch.

In the classic #Vignola version, the scotia used in the column base is smaller and gouges out a portion of the bottom fillet. Vignola did that to accentuate the effect of incident light and bring out the shadows. He must have really liked the #lightAndShade effect because he had TWO of them in the classic column base for the #IonicColumn.

An intermediary variant then emerged in which the larger arc was tangential to the bottom fillet instead of gouging it out. It still allowed for the interplay of light and shade as it had a lip that extended above the nominal fillet. Also, it was 4/3 the size of the Vignola variant and the fillets were twice as tall, ostensibly to make the lip more conspicuous, and provide some utility or justification for the lip.

If you are into #font design or you are an avid calligrapher, you will never look at font #serifs the same way after looking at the intermediate evolutionary stage of the scotia. In particular, the #Optima font is classified as #sansSerif, but the stem in its repertoire of characters has an uncanny resemblance at the tip of the lip.

Unfortunately, the lip didn't seem durable as it was prone to chipping. While Optima still thrives, designers rejected the lip of the scotia as vestigial over time, and used an ellipse for the larger arc so that it was tangential to the fillet right where the fillet ended. This design has endured, and the variant of the column base that uses this molding is called either the "modern" base or the #AtticBase. The etymology is from Latin #Atticus which means ‘relating to #Athens or #Attica region of #Greece.'
SplinesJan 31, 2025
The #column is the most complex component — not least because of the beautiful #capital at the top. It also offers the most opportunities for creative expression, as long as designers differentiate in the #decorativeElements, not #tectonicElements.

There are 3 subcomponents of a column — the #columnBase, #columnShaft, and #columnCapital. In the #IonicOrder, there are variants for each of these components, not just in the tectonic portions, but also in the decorative portions, and it is equally acceptable to mix and match them.

Classic variant of the column #base bears #Vignola's signature in a new #molding called #scotia. There's a "modern" version that has a newer Scotia. I am trying hard to resist the urge to call it #NovaScotia.

The column #shaft is not perfectly cylindrical. It gradually tapers off in the upper 2/3, has a plain unadorned variant, and a #fluted variant.

Classic variant of the column #capital has parallel flat #volute slabs only visible from the front and back, but not from the sides. There's also a modern variant that has curved volute faces on all four sides with pointed ends at all corners and optimized for use in a corner column, but not limited to that.

These variants can be freely intermixed in any combination of base, shaft, and capital. The sketch shows an Ionic column with a modern base, fluted shaft, and classic capital, but any other combination would be equally acceptable as long as all are internally consistent in a single #colonnade or #arcade.

Beyond these tectonic elements, there are decorative elements like the #eggsAndDarts motif in the #ovolo of the capital. The eggs can be convex or concave, the eggs and arrows can look different, or the Ovolo could have a completely different motif, or none at all.

The bell-shaped #scrolls between volute slabs are separated by a ribbon or belt with a 3-strand braid not seen in this sketch. If you design fashion accessories, experiment with other designs while maintaining proportions.
SplinesJan 30, 2025
This shows the detailed measurements of the top and bottom portions of the #IonicPedestal. For macro-level measurements, see https://pixelfed.social/p/Splines/790571135473463588

Each of the blue curve segments (lines and arcs) that are marked with a yellow bubble is the #profileCurve for a #molding whose name is inside the bubble.

Starting at the bottom, we have a #plinth, a #fillet, a #cymaRecta, and a #reed as part of the #basement of an Ionic pedestal.

Next up, we have a #fillet and a #cavetto at the bottom of the #dado, and another cavetto and fillet at the top of the dado.

Moving higher up, a reed, an #ovolo, a #corona, a #cymaReversa, and a final fillet top off the cap of the pedestal.

They are called profile curves because each is the outline or silhouette of a 3D molding as seen from one side or in a cross section. In the case of a pedestal, these curves can be used directly to recreate the 3D shape of the pedestal. For this reason and in this case, I call them #primaryProfileCurves.

This is not always the case. For more complex shapes, such as the #scroll surface of an #IonicCapital shown in https://pixelfed.social/p/Splines/789956327130679640, the profile curves recovered by #reverseEngineering the image scans in #Vignola's book cannot be used directly to sweep the scroll surface because the scroll shape is not cylindrical. Like the inside of a rose, the scroll surface follows the outlines of spiral #volutes in the front and back, neither of which are circular. So, additional steps are necessary to derive the curves that we can actually use to reconstruct the surface.

In the case of the scroll surface, the derivation of these curves is not trivial and not obvious, but it is not difficult to understand, and no math is involved. There are multiple sets of curves, and each successive set is derived from a previous set. I call them secondary, tertiary, and quaternary curves.

For now, we stick with the primary profile curves for the pedestal.
Splines (@[email protected])

This shows macro-level measurements for the #IonicPedestal. The key to #effectiveModeling is to simplify a complex shape into elementary components. Sometimes, this involves mentally flattening and reducing 3D shapes to 2D shapes, extracting elementary curves from them, and then recreating the 3D shapes from the extracted 2D curves. This is not always easy for organic shapes (which can still be approximated by Bézier curves). I extracted the #primaryCurves for the #IonicScroll surface in https://pixelfed.social/p/Splines/789956327130679640 after a lengthy trial-and-error process that involved #curveFitting images from #Vignola’s book, #RegolaArchitettura. I had to reverse engineer the details because the measurements have either been lost, or are locked away in some library. Web search yields no details on these measurements. Fortunately, for geometrical shapes like pedestals, this is very easy. Because of its square footprint, mentally slicing it through the middle from top to bottom, it is easy to “see” the outline. Another way to think about #curveExtraction is to shine an imaginary bright light on an object from behind in a dark room to reveal its silhouette. For the pedestal, even this silhouette or outline can be further reduced because the shape is symmetrical about the #columnAxis. With this realization, we only need to focus on one half of the outline, and methodically proceed from bottom to top, marking every kink and inflection point on the outline. Fortunately, the other authoritative book, #Scarlata’s #PracticalArchitecture, I mentioned in my introductory post already documents #VignolaProportions in tabular form. So we can skip everything else and go directly to that. Total height of #IonicPedestal is 864 units (108 parts, or 6*µ) of which the #PedestalBasement and #PedestalCap are each 72 units (9 parts, or µ/2) and the #Dado is 720 units (90 parts, or µ*5) tall.

Pixelfed
FaintdreamsJan 5, 2025

Ooooh this looks *remarkably useful* dunno what I would use it for, but am glad it exists.

Hope I remember it if / whenever I need to make a small mold of a anything !

Flexi Mold: Reusable Molding Material! ♻️

https://youtube.com/watch?v=11UNxsvOsu4&si=c95Ai2gxZYp96rsH

#modeling #molding #kitbash #Dollcraft

Flexi Mold: Reusable Molding Material! ♻️

YouTube
Vormy the VulpesNov 17, 2024

Here is a photo of me taking my silicone toy fox out of the 3d printed mold. Out of mold and into my butt~ For this my home made anal vore sex toy.

#3dprinting #silicone #casting #molding #diy #sextoy #vore #analvore #furry

China Business ForumAug 16, 2024
[#TRADESHOW] 2024 #International #Plant #Fiber #Molding #Industry #Exhibition (#IPFM) is a premier #global #event dedicated to #showcasing the latest advancements in plant fiber molding #technology and sustainable #packaging solutions. Held from October 10-12 2024, at the Tanzhou International #Convention and Exhibition #Center in #Foshan, #China, this exhibition is at the forefront of the industry’s transition towards eco-friendly and innovative #manufacturing practices. https://cnbusinessforum.com/event/the-international-plant-fiber-molding-industry-exhibition-ipfm/
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