Techniques for casting faux stone patterns

[ecrouse]

Hi all, been searching the casting forum and resources sections but all I keep coming up with are people asking for techniques and here I am starting another thread asking for techniques. Below was a first go at it and it turned out alright but I'd really like thinner, more defined webbing patterns. I saw an example of a pattern I really love in the featured pens section - first post by Carl Pepka. The purple and white is a great example of the definition I am looking for and the cap of his other pen is fantastic as well. It looks like someone smushed differnt color boba balls in a tube.

I've got a number of other ideas I was going to try out to see if I can get those kinds of looks but I figured before I waste a bunch of resin I'd ask you all for ideas.


Forgive the terrible pen, it was an old 7mm is had in a bag and I grabbed the tubes and turned as if it were a slimline only to realize it was a European after I dumped out the rest of the bag. Oh well..

 

[hokie]

Here is one method that looks promising, but it seems to only work for polyester resin...

Other than that, I've also had a hard time figuring out a faux stone process for epoxy or urethane resins. Just dumping in random chunks of other already cured pieces just results in looking just like what is described. It doesn't look like what would result after immense pressures of the earth formed it like natural stone. I suspect tru-stone and the like are basically chunks of a base color coated in a webbing color, then dumped in a mold/form and compressed until cured. Just a guess though since I'm not aware of a video or description of their process.

Other stone-like blanks I am not aware of unless they are sort of granite-like and are basically a lot of tiny specs suspected in resin.

 

[ecrouse]

Thanks, Hokie. Interestingly that's kinda what I did for the above blank. It is Castin Craft polyester resin, 3 different colors. I did an opaque red and an opaque white that I intended to be the base, the larger pieces, then a translucent red-blue mix with a dot of opaque white to mute the depth and a dash of gold glitter just because, as the webbing part. Each component was 1oz

Catalyzed the red and the white and swirled them then let them sit till they got to a medium gel state. Chopped them up with a razor knife then catalyzed the "webbing" part, dumped it in and stirred the while thing up and let it do its thing.

My thoughts after turning this were more of the base colors, less of the webbing color. After the webbing color was added let it sit till it gets to soupy gel stage and then press from the top to squeeze some of it out and make the webbing finer.

 

[chartle]

I once tried polymer clay to try to make turquoise. I tried wrapping the blue in thin black and I think mixing the blue uncured chunks in black paint. Got very inconsistent results. I also tried to make opal with translucent clear pink and glitter flakes.

 

[Penchant 4]

Not a bad imitation of rhodocrosite. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ecrouse]

Thanks! I'll keep sharing till I get yelled at.

I look at this forum all the time then I finally decided to join and ask this question and it said my email address was already taken so I did a reset password and I must have had a number of adult beverages on Nov 8 2012 because apparently I've been a member since then

No idea why I would have joined but never posted a single post

Anyway, unrelated to stone look but something I threw together tonight, hoping for a stained glass vibe

 

[chartle]

Oh I also tried turquoise colored poly clay and black embossing powder. Now that I think back I had the wrong shaped mold. For some reason I tried using pvc pipe versus a regular flat mold.

 

[ecrouse]

Followup to the unrelated post above. If stream of consciousness threads are frowned on here let me know,.

Well, that was a fail. I cast it in my shop without heat (64F ambient) and it had way too much time for the colors to bleed in to each other. Not one to waste stuff I had an old Sedona Copper on coolibah that the finish had clouded on so I popped it apart and put it on the result. I don't hate it but it's not what I hoped for.