New resin storage (at last)

June 21st, 2011

I’ve been holding off buying more casting supplies, because I was in dire need of a better way of storing them. The old fridge-freezer I’d been using was simply too small, and particularly in this damp weather I want somewhere dry and warm to be able to store the supplies where they’ll last longer.

Two weeks ago I managed to grab a large commercial display fridge off ebay, and after a lot of problems with the local garage and our van we managed to collect it.

Well actually we got within 0.7miles of collecting it before the van fuel-pump failed (which we’d repeatedly asked the garage to check, but they knew best & instead changed the distributor cap & leads. Not going back there now.). Thankfully the seller brought it down to our van in their car, so we got to get towed home with it in the back.

Today I finally managed to get it moved into the workshop.

It’s a big square insulated box. The glass door is a small concern, but I suppose it’ll get me to keep the place tidier.

I got the wiring tidied up and moved around. The refrigeration still works, and I’ll be seeing if it’s possible to use it as a dehumidifier. As you can see in the quick cameraphone pic, the oil-filled radiaitor currently takes up a lot of space, so I’ll be seeing it I can improve that, possibly by changing it for a filament heater (though I’m concerned about fire risk). Will be adding a couple of fixed temperature sensors at some point to trigger the fan and try and keep the temp evenly distributed.

There’s a hole at the top that also needs plugging, where the neon lamp used to be. Silly bit of design, but easier enough to work around.

Tomorrow I start work on moving everything I shifted to the other side of the workshop back again, so I can actually use the place and get on with the current orders.

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Fun at Expo

May 30th, 2011

I was out at MCM Expo on Saturday stall-sitting. Karen of Kraken Kritters kindly let me sell some of my Ferret shirts on the table too, so there’s some money in the coffers again now! Just in time, as I need new materials.

The prototype horns I wore also got a lot of attention, so I’ll be pushing on with them. I just need to rig up a roto-moulding machine to get even hollow castings.

Gallery is still down, I know. In the intervening time I’ve had to reinstall this computer. On the upside though it’s running much faster now and I’ve found a lot of archive photos I thought had been lost. So new pics should be up soon. Likewise some lovely new example pieces.

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Castings Clear-out!

May 16th, 2011

I’ve realised I’ve accumulated a lot of spare cast items over the last year. Most are simply spare stock I made with surplus resin, though there’s also some that were attempts to get certain colours, even some that weren’t suitable for purpose. I’ve been doing castings to order mostly though so haven’t gotten around to listing them for direct sale until now. I’m rather in need of some extra cash right now. 😛

The paw-pads are made using a soft polyurethane casting rubber, the couple of footpads are made of a hard casting rubber and backed on velcro for easy replacement when they wear down. I’m working on new moulds for most of what’s listed here, so will be listing examples of the new work soon. The claws are PU resin reinforced with calcium carbonate for impact resistance. Odd & partial sets have been marked down from the usual sale price, though regular good castings remain the same.

EDIT: Please note the pads are designed to be sewn in place, not glued. PU rubber is very difficult to glue to. I may be able to cast new ones directly onto a felt or similar absorbent backing though if glue-on is required.

I can cast up the missing bits for incomplete/partial sets if someone wants, and will drill the extra mounting holes in necklace-drilled claws on request, likewise for unfinished claw sets.

I’m based in the UK and only ship internationally by AirSure. First come first served, and this listing is also going up in a couple of other places. If in the UK I prefer direct bank transfer, though accept most other forms of cleared payment including paypal. Postage will be worked out on case by case, based on location & order weight.

I am currently awaiting a new batch of black pigment, so orders requiring more black items cast may be delayed a few days.

—

Paw-pads

Red canine palms, £10
Red large finger-pads, £8
Red anthro feline palms (partial), £8 (£11 for completed set)
Black feline palms, £12
Black canine palms, £10
Black anthro feline palms (partial), £8 (£11 for completed set)
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4119.jpg

Black, feline palms, £12
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4165.jpg

Black, Anthro Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4151.jpg

Black, Anthro Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4167.jpg

Black, Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4152.jpg

Black, large finger-pads, £8
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4154.jpg

Pink, Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4157.jpg

Pink, Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4169.jpg

Yellow, large finger-pads, canine palms, set, £18
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4158.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4159.jpg

Dark chocolate, small finger-pads, anthro canine palms, set, £16
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4163.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4164.jpg

Scrap Pads

Small blue foot-digits, velcro-backed, (messy but functional casts) £6
Black (yellow-edge) & Purple canine footpads, velcro-backed, £5
3x Sky-Blue large finger-pads & 4x Pink large finger-pads, £5
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4124.jpg

Black, small finger-pads (cast in wrong mould, pads too closely placed to sew-on), £4
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4166.jpg

Claws

Black razor claws,
x9 Small (£1.00 ea), x8 Medium (£1.10ea), x27 Long (£1.20ea)
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4126.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4127.jpg

Black regular claws, x6 Medium, x5 Small, £11
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4138.jpg

White regular claws, x10, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4144.jpg

White regular claws, x9 Small, x4 Medium, £13
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4149.jpg

Pink, small regular claws (x11), £11
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4147.jpg

“Aqua” glow-in-the-dark, regular, x11 Small, x9 Medium (very graduated blue glow, over-pigmented translucent resin), £15
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4172.jpg

Dark green, regular claws, 8x long, undrilled, £8
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4175.jpg

Translucent blue, glow-in-the-dark claws, necklace-drilled.
Regular x1 Large (£1.70ea), x8 Medium (£1.60ea), x6 Small (£1.50ea). Razor x10 Large (£1.60ea), x8 Medium (£1.50ea), x11 Small (£1.40ea).
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4179.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4180.jpg

Translucent candy-red, Razor claws, necklace-drilled
x10 Large (£1.30ea), x9 Medium (£1.20ea), 9 Small (£1.10ea).
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4189.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4191.jpg

Unpigmented, green glow-in-the-dark Razor claws, necklace-drilled
x5 Large (£1.60ea), x6 Medium (£1.50), x2 Small (£1.40).
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4193.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4194.jpg

Scrap Claws

Black, regular claws, x11 Small, £6 (drilling & mix issues)
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4174.jpg

Translucent multi-colour set (colour-mix trials for previous order), £10
2x Candy red, 4x blue, 2x green, 2x clear
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4135.jpg

Translucent multi-colour set (colour-mix trials for previous order), £10
4x purple, 4x blue, 2x green, 2x candy red
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4139.jpg

Translucent multi-colour set (colour-mix trials for previous order), £10
4x blue, 4x candy red, 2x green, 2x purple
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4142.jpg

Translucent Green Glow-In-The-Dark Razor-claws, messy castings needing cleanup, £10
x3 Large, 13x Medium, 8x Small.
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4130.jpg

Mixed test & leftover casts, regular claws, rough, £5
x2 small purple, 2x green translucent medium, 4x hot pink trans medium, 3x clear medium, trans candy orange medium, blue with LED, other scraps
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4146.jpg

Mixed test & leftover casts, regular & razor claws, £5
2x medium white, 3x purple Razor (one each size), 3x medium white razor, 3x medium black razor, 2x medium black regular, 1x small grey
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4196.jpg

Other

Black, large cat-nose, £6
Pink, large cat-nose, (ex-display) £5
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4171.jpg

Candy-red translucent claw necklace, £6
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4177.jpg

Translucent blue, glow-in-the-dark claw necklace, £7
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4183.jpg

Unpigmented, green glow-in-the-dark claw necklace, £6.50
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4184.jpg

Other claw necklaces, £2
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4188.jpg

Other Scraps

Hemispheres, various sizes & colours. Poor casts, colour tests. Frosted surfaces, badly cured rear surfaces. Maybe good for some props? £4
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/spheres.jpg

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Posted in Creations, Events, Work Blog | 1 Comment »

Gallery down

April 28th, 2011

Fixing the internal gallery is going to take a bit longer than anticipated. I’m already reorganising the layout, but there’s quite a few items I never got around to putting on it and a few hundred master images to sift through. And once the new and better quality images are up I’ll have to go back through all the previous blog entries and correct image links.

Might be a day or two.

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Eye-blank developements

April 27th, 2011

I’m glad to say there’s finally some good news on the eye-blank front. A few recent castings have been coming out crystal clear! The new epoxy resin is starting to work out.

It’s crystal clear, without the yellowy tone of the eurethane clear-cast and without the blue hint of the noxious styrene resin.

The only issue is that it’s rather harsh on the silicone moulds, clinging to them very tightly. Mould-release has helped a bit but has also left the blanks with a slightly “frosted” surface.

I have some test blanks currently curing in hardier urethane-rubber based moulds, which hopefully will not require mould release. If they come out as well as I hope, I should be able to start production proper within the next fortnight.

A urethane mould curing

The experiments continue. More updates should soon follow. For science!

PS: Site gallery and previous post images may not respond correctly for a while as I shall be making alterations to the gallery plugin the site uses.

Posted in Developments, Prototypes | 1 Comment »

More LiveStream

April 12th, 2011

Going to stream for a little while. Couple of hours, tops. Click on the link to join the chatroom or watch through the inline viewer.

Watch live streaming video from starborneworks at livestream.com

Posted in Livestreaming | 1 Comment »

Workshop livestream!

April 10th, 2011

The new workshop PC is running fine and a test stream has gone well. So for the next 3+hours I’ll be doing some casting of paw-pads, making up some claws, and probably getting distracted and doing a few other things too.

Excuse the mess, things are still being shifted around. 😉

Watch live streaming video from starborneworks at livestream.com

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Posted in Livestreaming | 1 Comment »

Pre-Xmas stock sale! Grab it now!

December 2nd, 2010

Last updated December 2nd, 2010:

Christmas is now just a little over three weeks away!
Would you like to give someone the gift of some UKFur-Love? Well, most items are in stock at the moment! The full inventory list follows..

Modelling the Unisex T-shirts, here’s our favourite meet-boffin, Lupus! (click images for larger)

UKFur Wolf Classic (XXXL size pictured right)

  • Small – 35/37″ chest – £10 – 4 stocked
  • Medium – 38/40″ chest – £10 – 3 stocked
  • Large – 41/43″ chest – £10 – 2 stocked
  • XL – 44/46″ chest – £10 – 3 stocked – (+1 currently pending payment)
  • XXL – 47/49″ chest – £11 – 4 stocked
  • XXXL – 50/52″ chest – £11.50 – 4 stocked
  • XXXXL – 54/56″ – £12 – 2 stocked

UKFur Union-Wolf (XXL size pictured right)

  • Small – 35/37″ chest – £12 – 3 stocked
  • Medium – 38/40″ chest – £12 – 3 stocked
  • Large – 41/43″ chest – £12 – 2 stocked
  • XL – 44/46″ chest – £12 – 5 stocked
  • XXL – 47/49″ chest – £13 – 4 stocked
  • XXXL – 50/52″ chest – £13.50 – 4 stocked

UKFur Dragon Variant (S size pictured right)

  • Small – 35/37″ chest – £10 – 5 stocked
  • Medium – 38/40″ chest – £10 – OUT OF STOCK
  • Large – 41/43″ chest – £10 – 3 stocked
  • XL – 44/46″ chest – £10 – 2 stocked
  • XXL – 47/49″ chest – £11 – 4 stocked
  • XXXL – 50/52″ chest – £11.50 – 4 stocked

Modelling the Ladies size shirts, the ever-lovely Halo. (again, click images for larger)

Ladies-fit UKFur Wolf Classic

  • Xtra Small – Size 8 – £12 – 3 stocked
  • Small – Size 10 – £12 – 1 stocked
  • Medium – Size 12 – £12 – 3 stocked
  • Large – Size 14 – £12 – 1 stocked
  • XL – Size 16 – £12 – 2 stocked

Ladies-fit UKFur Wolf Pink

  • Xtra Small – Size 8 – £12 – 1 stocked
  • Small – Size 10 – £12 – 2 stocked
  • Medium – Size 12 – £12 – 2 stocked
  • Large – Size 14 – £12 – 3 stocked
  • XL – Size 16 – £12 – 2 stocked

Ladies-fit UKFur Union-Wolf

  • Xtra Small – Size 8 – £14 – 1 stocked
  • Small – Size 10 – £14 – 2 stocked
  • Medium – Size 12 – £14 – OUT OF STOCK
  • Large – Size 14 – £14 – 2 stocked
  • XL – Size 16 – £14 – 2 stocked

Additionally available is my own in-house design, featuring an adorable ferret popping up through two portals knot-holes.

Unisex “Got Ferret?” shirts

  • Small – 35/37″ chest – £14 – 4 stocked
  • Medium – 38/40″ chest – £14 – 4 stocked
  • Large – 41/43″ chest – £14 – 1 stocked
  • XL – 44/46″ chest – £14 – 2 stocked
  • XXL – 47/49″ chest – £14 – 4 stocked

Other UKFur Items

  • UKFur vinyl stickers – 50p
  • Silicone UKFur wristbands – £1.50
  • Lanyards, with safety clip – £3.50

Postage

  • To ensure safe delivery, all items are sent by Royal Mail 1st Class Signed-For.
  • Postage for 1 shirt will be £3.50. Other postage dependant on order sizes/weights.

Payment & Ordering

  • Please email or otherwise message me to place an order and I will provide total and payment details of your choice.
  • Stocks will be adjusted to “pending” until money clears.
  • Paypal currently preferred, but Postal-order, cheque or bank-transfer also accepted.
  • Items will not be sent until payment has cleared.

Important notes

  • Each individual design on all shirts are all the same print size, irrespective of actual shirt size.
  • One of each size/type is likely to have been a display item. These will be sent last, but have no flaws or wear and will be re-packed in their delivery bags before postage. If this may be a problem, please specify.

Posted in T-shirts, Work Blog | 1 Comment »

Streaming again

October 17th, 2010

Just knocking something together for my RBW stall before more casting so some orders can ship tomorrow.

Same bat time, same bat channel.

Oh, and I’m hoping to get a better camera next week, because I pity your eyes.

Watch live streaming video from starborneworks at livestream.com

Posted in Livestreaming | 1 Comment »

Livestreaming now

October 16th, 2010

I’ll be livestreaming from the workshop for a bit tonight. A bit of tinkering followed by some casting to catch-up with current orders a bit. I expect to be streaming for about 2 hours, or a bit more.

I’ll also be on Skype if you want to come on and chat, but just one at a time. I know Skype while livestreaming now works but I haven’t endurance-tested it yet. You can contact me on Skype under “scistarborne”.

Embedded video is below, or click the link under that to watch directly at Livestream.

Watch live streaming video from starborneworks at livestream.com

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