The Fifth Element Stones

[mydigitalvoid]

Hello Everyone,

So, I have decided to tackle the Fifth Element stones. I've chosen this for a few different reasons. First off, I love the film and have always wanted a set to call my own. Secondly, they are not overly complicated in design and since I've never done anything with clay or molding and casting, I figured this would be an ideal learning subject. And most importantly, I love the film and have always wanted a set to call my own. Oh wait, I already said that

I plan on making one stone at a time using a reusable mold of sorts that I have already built. The idea here is that I wouldn't need as much clay to make the stone details. The general shape and size is already there, I could just focus on fine tuning it. Here are some pictures of where I am currently.


1) I started off with what seems to be the generally accepted size of the stones and reduced it by 1/4". I would use the paper version to then create a styrofoam version.



2) I glued a couple slabs of styrofoam together and then cut to size based on my paper template.




3) Then it was time to focus on the basic shape.




4) This next move was skipped the first time I attempted this. Basically, the styrofoam is to soft and would probably get destroyed by the process of adding clay and if not, pieces of styrofoam would get into the clay when I tried to remove it. So, I wanted to create a shell that could handle this process and since I had some bondo left over from my previous project, I figured I'd go with that. Unfortunately, this would be only the second time using bondo and the heat from the bondo basically destroyed the styrofoam. :cry Learning process I suppose. So, this time around I put a glue coating around the styrofoam to ward off any potential issues. Thanks to a friend for suggesting that! Here are pictures of the glue version of the stone.




5) This time the bondo worked and I have a nice hard shell. After a few thin layers and some sanding here is how it sits now.





Tomorrow the plan is to go to a local store and pick up some clay and tools to help me work with the clay. After lots of reading, I'm thinking on going with a medium or hard clay. Something that is reusable so after I make a stone I can remove the clay and make the next one. It also has to be able to hold up to the molding process. Any recommendations here would be great! I figured I'd talk to the store people as well and see what they recommend based on what they have. I really don't want to buy clay and have to pay to have it shipped.

Thanks for watching and any feedback you can provide (good or bad) is much appreciated.

-Dv

 

[EmmaInCandyland]

Good start Can't wait to see thsi done

 

[mydigitalvoid]

Good start Can't wait to see thsi done

Thanks Emma

 

[EmmaInCandyland]

You're very welcome hehe

 

[mydigitalvoid]

So, over the weekend in my <sarcastic>copious</sarcastic> amounts of spare time, I picked up some clay and got started. I ended up going with Roma Plastilina #3. I need about a 1/4 inch worth of clay around my fake stone so I picked up a 1/4 inch piece of wood at Lowes and took a marble roller and flatend out the sides. Here are a few progress pictures.







I'm not sure on the best method for attaching the clay to the bondo shell. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Also, I played around with getting a rough texture on the skins but really wasn't getting the look I wanted. I think I'm going to head over to Lowes/Home Depot this afternoon and look at their bricks and tile sections and see if something looks close to what I'm after which is depicted in the screen grab. Hopefully I can use something like that as a stamp.



If you notice the rough surface, that is what I am going after. The deep gauges I plan on making after as well as the elemental patterns.

 

[Contec]

For the rough surface, I would use different grades of sandpaper that i press against the clay.

 

[mydigitalvoid]

For the rough surface, I would use different grades of sandpaper that i press against the clay.

Awesome idea! Thanks, I will give that a shot.

 

[Contec]

For a more subtle texture you could try the sandpaper method with a sheet of "Saran wrap" over the clay.

 

[mydigitalvoid]

Thanks again for the pointers Contec! I tested a piece of clay with sandpaper and it does give a look which closely matches the stones.



I also ended up taking a wire mesh and wrapping my fake stone with it so the clay would stick better to it.



I've also attached the sides and started working on fixing up the corners. I still have some work to do before applying any sort of texture, but it's progress

 

[Evyltwyn]

Great work man