scott hensey here talking about uh wax
toy sculpture wax
why bother with wax well
generally if we're starting a toy in
this case an action figure
we get as far as we can with clay
get all the shapes and gestures and
movements and textures in
and then you find that you need to get
even tighter so we make a silicone mold
cast wax
and that allows us to sharpen to polish
to
finish
okay let's make some wax um as i say
this was a personal recipe that i've
been working on for a long time
we have carnauba
candelilla i'm not sure that's how it's
pronounced but i call it candela put a
little bee wax in there some paraffin
and then filler which allows you to
carve it i use talc and then we use
crayons for
the coloring carnauba
is there to make it a hard wax and this
is kind of something that a lot of
sculptors don't like they don't like it
hard they want it to be soft because
they think it goes faster that way i
think
you cut too deep when it's too soft and
then you got to go back and fill it in
and i don't think it polishes up as well
without the carnauba carnauba has a
higher melting point than the other
waxes so you have to put it in your in
your fryer first and let it melt
so i've already done that there it is
melted candela comes looking a little
bit grainy kind of uh like sand
put that in not very much bee wax very
little
then
the paraffin
what i would do is let that melt down
and then take my talc
and pour it in on top
i color them with crayons there's some
white crayons in there uh but i'm not
going to tell you how many brown ones
and how many red ones i use because when
you mix up your own wax
use my recipe but come up with your own
color
i think that's fair
let it melt all day long then at the end
of the day you're going to stir it up
don't start stirring up until
everything's melted or you'll just have
lumps
and the boss will yell you
i like to cast at about 170 degrees this
is important
if you're casting much cooler than that
you get a lot of chill lines a lot of
little lines are gonna have to carve out
hotter than that and the material will
actually separate in the mold
if you're going to
pour it you need something to pour it
with
so i use this kind of flexible guy here
to pour into the molds
when i've used that a few times
i end up with it coated like this
i can just bust it off
i'm back to clean again i didn't use
anything up i don't have to throw
anything away
when these things start to fall apart
get rid of them and get a new one the
reason is you don't want any foreign
objects in your wax i've heard a lot of
people say one of my bigger problems is
i get stuff
in my wax how do i make sure i don't get
the various debris
well i have a few
rules that i go by one is
these two little trays those are the
only places i ever put in my tools i
never put them down on the table
any wax that spills on the table is lost
never put it back in the pot if you just
go by those few rules
your wax will stay clean oh if you're
casting into a silicone mold that is old
little hunks of silicone will come off
on your casting so just be advised if
something looks like it's falling apart
don't use it
sometimes
the casting you're making is so
intricate that pouring in is going to be
a problem so you get these big old
syringes and you can suck it up in there
and actually shoot it in
if i'm casting a piece that has a volume
it's kind of a round shape like this as
opposed to a thin place i might make a
hollow casting just pour it in there and
pour it out
and let it roll around the inside
the reason for that is the wax will
always shrink towards the center
and it'll shrink more uniformly that way
if it's hollow
whenever
i've cast
wax and i get a part that is straight
out of the mold it's
it's kind of rough it's got parting
lines on it it's got scratches it's got
chill lines from the wax casting
and what i'd start with
is a
a blade piece
and get in there and just
start polishing it off like that i could
never do that with clay
and what i'm doing to getting get my
shape where i want to be is that i'm
going to cross the stroke this way and
then that way
this way
and then that way
until i'm down
you keep
working the contours of the shape
to keep the thing alive
this is my waxer
but as you can see i can regulate the
the temperature
wax will burn if it gets too hot if it
burns it's no good to you
so you have to be careful if i hold it
against the block the temperature will
stay down but as soon as i move away
it'll get too hot
if you want it to stick really well
you let it get kind of hot and then i'm
actually touching
the charlie's head here
and kind of melting the wax below
so that it goes on without leaving a
crack you want a good bond it's like
welding really you want it to bond not
just sit on the surface
if i did this
that drop will fall off as soon as
that's cool i can knock that right off
which is not what you want
so mostly wax is just there to
to finish
just to
put the hard edge lines in
and then they'll stay
and be there when you come back if this
were a clay piece while i'm working on
this ear i'm squishing that ear so when
i come back around oops i gotta fix this
one and now i'm squish that one
i could never start the work
with wax because it would just take too
long to build up the shapes
and the spontaneity of the pieces just
could never be there starting with wax
means you're going to have a stiff
and
just overly thought out sculpture you
want to maintain some life
so there's a there's kind of an
overwhelming point where you start
working on this stuff and you think oh
man i'm never going to get there this is
ridiculous
but you just the whole trick to this is
just sit there until you're done
don't don't be disheartened don't get up
and run away screaming just sit there
until you're done
that's the best thing i can tell you
you