[tekkboi]

Bob,
Try using Hydrocal instead of plaster. Hydrocal is gypsum cement and is much harder than plaster USGypsum sells it as Hydrostone. Its also sold under the name Permastone by Activa Products. It mixes and sets up the same as plaster but is much harder when finished.

Are you going to sell plans for your reducer carver?

I'm building the copycarver and a half size version of the copycarver now.

[Mottles]

Originally Posted by Bob May

Hi Kathy,
Thanks for the welcome. I like you website. The gourds are really nice and the deer. I didn't see any clay sculptures. Did I miss them?
Bob

Sorry, Bob at present I'm redesigning my web site and only show one of my clay sculptures. Here is a link to the page it's on http://www.colorjourney.com/id14.html it's right at the top. I'm working on rephotographing my sculpture for their own page. I have a few more gourds to add also.
Kathy

[Bob May]

Hi Tekkboi,

Thanks for the tip. I had read about hydrocal on a sculpture website. I want to give it a try when I get some cash.

I haven't made any drawings of the machine yet. It was not as easy to build as the copy carver. I had to do quite a bit of welding. It probably would not be as popular either, so I don't know if it would be worth the effort and expense of having a website for it like the copy carver guy did.
It is not something the average woodworker would build being that there is welding involved. It is basically a pantograph with a small router instead of a pencil, so it has to be very sturdy. I have been thinking of ways to make it out of wood, though so I may draw up plans if I get it figured out.

You will be happy with the copy carver. It is a very handy tool for a lot of things. I used steel angle iron for rails ( like this ^ ) instead of the copper tubing. It seemed to work out better.

Bob

[Bob May]

Hi Kathy,
I like the sculpture.
It also occured to me that there are a lot of people interested these days in the old time fretless gourd banjos. You might want to look into that. I know some of them are on "myspace". There are certain specific gourds that they use to make them and they are played in a special way and have a very unique bluesy sound. You might want to try building one. They seem easy enough to build and you seem to have a resource for the gourds.

Bob

[aceman3668]

[quote=Bob May]Hi everyone,
I am new here. I am a woodworker by trade. Mostly musical instruments and cabinetry. I am an artist by nature I guess and I am trying to come up with some more artistic ways to use my talents.
I have recently built a reducing copy carver and I am looking for ways to use it. With it I can carve out of wood (or soft stone with the right bits), 1/2 or 1/3 scale copies of sculptures or "life castings."
I have only done a few things with it so far. You can take a look at them at: http://www.esnips.com/web/Reducingcopycarvingmachine

I guess I am looking for ideas on uses and marketing of those uses.
With a bit of "tweaking", I should be able to put a full sized torso casting on the machine and carve it 1/2 or 1/3 size. It is decieving how small that really is. That would translate to a 6 foot tall person's torso being only a 9" to 13" carving. Half-masks and necks out of hollow partly rotten logs are also something I want to try.

I'm just fishing for ideas at this point. Any and all comments, ( like; "Go away". "I hate you!" or "Sounds like a good idea" or anything else along those lines...) are welcomed.

Also, I intend to make castings of clay sculptures to put into my machine. Clay is too soft to stand up to repeatedly dragging the stylus over the model. Any ideas on a pretty hard cold casting material would be helpful.
Sculpy is way too soft and I don't have a kiln to fire clay.

Glad to meet you all,
Bob[Hey Bob an art store might have clay that you can bake in your oven at home. Aceman3668]