Lava Pools

[dcrabb]

Here are some lava pools I made over a couple of nights recently. I used MDF, CDs and wood slats for the bases and paper clay for the rest. I also added a couple of small marbles to simulate bubbles.


IMGP2743 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

First night I formed the pools on the bases and stuck in the marbles. I used a sharpened sprue to make the cuts and cracks in the clay then let he clay dry over night. Then I painted the walls of the pools black and the surface of the lava pools a dark red. I then dry brushed several layers of progressively lighter gray on the walls. Then on the lava pools I blended in working from the edges into the center lighter reds, oranges, yellow and then picked out the "hot" spots with white. I heavily diluted a bit of PVA glue, white paint with water and coated the glass to make it look more like bubbles. I also drybrushed the inside wall of the pool with the lava colors to make it look like the light from the hot lava was reflecting off the walls.

You can see from the photos that the edges of some of the longer pieces have bowed up. This was caused by the clay shrinking as it dried. To over come this I think the bases should have been bigger and the clay would be kept from the edges of the base.

Here is the final product:

IMGP2750 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

and

IMGP2751 by Doug Crabb, on Flickr

[krasimirova]

I like them.. Could you tell me what paper clay is..? We don't have it by that name in Denmark..

[dcrabb]

Paper clay is a form of modeling clay available at hobby/craft stores in the US. It will air dry as opposed to being put in a kiln or oven and baked.

[adastra84]

In the UK there's a product called DAS Pronto which is the same, if that helps.