isotelus resin cast In Bag

One of the gift shops to which my fossil club sells replicas had a lot of problems with chipping on plaster casts from both me and another maker. So she insists on only resin casts now. She and I developed the product you see in this photo. It's the same Isotelus maximus mold but I only fill the mold to the top of the trilobite. When I made more molds, I saved on RTV silicone rubber by making a cardboard wall around the original cast and securing it with packing tape. Crude - yes. But I made five molds inexpensively that allow to produce more faster. The 2-part resin I use sets in a couple of hours, so I can iterate this process throughout my "fun day". I use three dyes made for this type of resin in combination to create a dusty calcite color for the resin - brown, black and white. I can't see the actual color until after the resin sets, so it's a guessing game. But it doesn't really matter. I spray paint them in bulk with dark taupe and dark brown and wipe off the excess paint to produce the right coloring.

Any questions?

Bill

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