Cloned Heart

                    

I recently posted an image of a mixed media piece I created titled ‘Heart String'. I had placed a found heart shaped stone on it. I liked it so well that I decided to make it a permanent part of the composition. Unfortunately, the actual stone was too heavy for the canvas and its thickness did not work with the piece. I decided to try to duplicate it. I did not have any mold making material so I used what I had instead of buying more stuff. I had some moldable foam that you heat to create foam stamps from three-dimensional objects. Although it worked well enough to please me, I would do it differently next time or buy the proper mold making material.  Below are the steps I took.

First, I heated the foam with a small heat gun, and then pushed the stone into the soft surface. The foam only allowed me to get a shallow impression, which turned out to be okay.

Next, I sprayed the mold with some old mold separation spray called Unstick. I do not think it is available anymore, but some other silicone spray or Vaseline would probably work, and maybe even better.

Then I filled the mold with Liquidtex light modeling paste. I should have cleaned off the excess paste around the edge of the heart as it ruined one side of the foam and made it difficult to remove the heart. I do not know what I was thinking. Maybe that it would give me some extra material to work with. Who knows?

This was the finished heart. Although the texture of the cloned heart was very much like the stone, I decided to use the backside, because it laid flat on the canvas better than the other side and I like distressed texture the palette knife made.

You can see the results on my website. www.evamacie.com under 'New Work'.