Thought I'd share my first major resin project with you guys.

First a little background info... (okay, maybe a lot.)

My obsession with vinyl toys didn't really blossom until early this year, when I started stalking the #designertoy tag on Instagram. I soon found myself discovering the whole underground DIY resin toy scene, which intrigued me because it could be done by just about anyone. Having some prior experience in sculpting through a Ceramics course in college and churning out polymer clay jewelry crap on Etsy, I was really excited to jump on in. Up until that point I had sculpted what people wanted rather than things that I actually wanted to make.

I started planning out my first resin toy back in late March. I wanted to make something obscure yet familiar, and remembered something I had found about a year ago. I was making an "evil" character in a video game and wanted to use the name of a historical demon for their last name. After searching through an online "demon encyclopedia," I found a name... but not without discovering this little fellow.



This... this silly-looking owl, is Stolas.
According to mythology:
"Stolas is a Great Prince of Hell, commands twenty-six legions of demons (twenty-five according to other authors), and teaches astronomy and the knowledge of poisonous plants, herbs and precious stones. He is also known as Stolos and Solas. He is depicted as either being a crowned owl with long legs, a raven, or a man."
Yes, this innocent little owl with a crown is supposed to be a commander in the legion of hell.

I thought that was absolutely hilarious, and was instantly drawn to him as a character. I set out to design a possible resin toy of him.



Here's an early concept drawing (made in glorious MS Paint, I might add) of Stolas and possible colorways. You can see that I was kind of influenced by more cartoony sculpts at the time. This was before my attention shifted more towards Japanese vinyl.

Fast-forward three months, and I still didn't do any actual sculpting. College and other personal projects got in the way, so when summer finally came around I was thrilled.

Three weeks ago I started sculpting Stolas. I'm no professional sculptor and it was soon evident that I couldn't possibly translate my previous concept art into clay at my current skill level. I had to make several adjustments and just make do with what I could accomplish at the moment.



An early head-shot.

One of the most frustrating things I faced with this project was the constant breakage of parts. The ear-tufts and side-tufts broke more times than I could count. I'm not sure if it's because of the material (super sculpey normal and firm), because I didn't cook it long enough, or I just manhandle my sculpts, but I broke more pieces than I could count. Repairs were a constant thing to deal with throughout the project. I had to cook the piece after each little addition just so I wouldn't mess up the whole thing.



I had to do a lot of reinforcing of the tufts. Here you can see a little indentation where I planned to put a magnet for head articulation, because I honestly have no idea how to make a joint.



Sculpting and filling the wings so I wouldn't have to deal with too many bubbles with casting. I don't have a pressure pot, so it's going to be just pour-and-poke to get rid of the bubbles.



Trying to get an idea of what it will look like finished. I honestly was lazy and only made one leg. Planning on just casting the leg twice and gluing them into the holes I made in the upper leg.



The final photo before molding. I primed, wet-sanded for about an hour and a half, and left it to dry out for 24 hours.



...aaaand here we are at present day. Last night I molded all the pieces (head, body, leg and crown) and will be demolded at 1am tonight. I'll be making a test-cast and depending on how that goes, I'll be grabbing a respirator and dremel to start self-production casts in August.

I'll keep you guys updated with how it goes.

Nice work Maddie! Can't wait to see the first cast.

How's this going?
Any more pics for us?

Nice Job!

Thanks for the comments and interest guys! I forgot about updating this, haha.

Here's the latest...



Unfortunately things didn't turn out too well. Because Mold Max is so thick, bubbles never rose to the surface like it does with Oomoo. Guess that's my own fault for not reading that a pressure pot is recommended for Mold Max...
Anyway, the first casts had both bubbles in the resin AND "reverse bubbles" from the mold.
THAT wouldn't have been so bad, but the original sculpts also broke apart during demolding, and then I accidentally stabbed myself in the thumb with an X-acto knife trying to clean up the sculpt. I put the project on hold until I could run out to Home Depot and buy myself a Dremel.



Later that week I managed to nab a Dremel 3000 for a great price. The next week I cleaned up the prototype casts and decided that my next course of action would be two-fold... to remold Stolas in a two-part mold made of Oomoo, and to make two finished pieces from the prototype casts.



Filling in the gaps... A word of advice, don't use plumbing epoxy for fixing sculpts. It's extremely cheap and works well as a filling material, but it smells like a skunk's asscrack. I mean seriously... It is probably one of the most foul scents that have ever had the misfortune to cross my airways. Besides fixing the prototypes, I ordered some Oomoo.



Three days ago I fixed and primed the original sculpt to prepare for remolding, and wet sanded both the sculpt and the prototypes. I'll probably be painting the prototypes later today!

Nice work, I cant wait to see the finished product.

Two mostly-finished prototypes!

These won't be the final colors for the first release (some are too dark or light), but doing this gave me an idea of what colors to aim for. I'll probably be mixing batches for the first run so I don't run into color matching issues.

Repairs are still underway for the original sculpt. Class started up again last week and has gotten in the way of my artsy fartsy time, but I did get my new shipment of silicone so hopefully things will be moving along later this week!

Really digging his personality. He seems inquisitive yet full of evil. Have you worked with aves apoxie sculpt before? It's non toxic and doesn't smell too terrible.

Stolas was put on hold for a while due to a death in the family, but things are finally moving again.



I have completed the new 2-part molds...
(excuse the demonic triangle of dogs, they're a project to raise money for a pit bull charity)



...and here are some casts from a 2-hour casting session. Still have a lot more to go before I'll be painting and assembling the first run.
The head and body are both rotocast by hand to save on costs and make it feel less bulky. (The prototypes were surprisingly heavy, which feels weird in hand. Guess I'm too used to holding hollow sofubi toys.)

I also have some plans for future sculpts that I'll share later. Going to make Stolas some demon friends.

These look great Maddie! How did I miss these?

I'll definitely be hoping to grab one when you finish the run.

Haven't updated this in a long while... Unfortunately school, health issues, and family issues have been getting in the way of things. I also had a mishap involving me forgetting to use primer, and having to strip the paint off with Simple Green and a lot of scrubbing.

In spite of all of that, I present to you...



...INCOMPLETE STOLAS!

He has his base coat on, magnets glued in place, but that's about it so far.

I still need to:

-Dremel the feet
-Spray paint the feet
-Glue in the feet
-Dremel the crowns
-Spray paint the crowns
-Handpaint the heads
-Handpaint the bodies
-Figure out how to package these suckers

Hopefully I can get that all done by the end of January.
The first release will be an edition of 7 in this colorway.
Second release will be a GID pink called "Pepto Abysmal" I already have the GID powder ready!

And of course, I'll be making some blanks for trades and a few one-offs when I feel up to it.
Except papers come first, so... back to the ol' college paper grind

Handpainting in progress.

I'm sorry, this toy is just way to cute to be called "Prince Of Hell."

Haha, precisely why I decided to sculpt him! He's too cute to be a demon! He looks so innocent and unassuming.

Can't tell you how amusing I find the idea of this adorable, goofy owl on stilts being the prince of hell... So glad I know that's a thing now lol, and what you've shown so far is just fantastic

Obviously you're working from source material, but I have to say I like the look of this guy without his legs. This photo below looks like a cool little figure as-is:

This is such a great character! Fascinating reading the journey too, I look forward to seeing the GID!

Thanks for the comments! After working with the legless figures for such a long time, I kind of got attached to them legless as well... not sure why.

These little weirdos get their crowns and clear-coat tomorrow.
And yes, their eyes are all different. No, it was not completely intentional, but it makes them interesting.

A terrible mishap with old yellowed clear coat caused me to have to take drastic measures to make the gallery deadline.



^ Gross yellow clearcoat drips...
So I had to improvise.



Not what originally intended, but it works.
Three of these are headed to the Skullbrainer show at Clutter Gallery.



So is this funky UV-reactive one-off I managed to pull out of my ass in two nights.

Everything has been shipped out and is currently at Clutter. I'm nervous as all hell because this is my first show and have no idea if the one-off made it there intact (it only broke about 5 times when I was making it ) and USPS is a turd and likes to manhandle boxes.

These are cool and this thread was a fun read.

Thanks, was a pleasant surprise to see some activity on this thread!
Hopefully I'll have some more updates to follow up with soon, family issues and class getting in the way again. Such is life.

More updates please!

How am I only finding out about this now? ARGH! I didn't even realize there was a resin-slinging area on here...

This guy is brilliant! I agree though, far too cute, bright and cheerful to be an emissary of the nether-regions... lol!

Haha, but that's the wonderful deception!

And super sorry for the complete lack of updates. All of my personal projects, like this one, have been put on hold for the time being. Money issues, health issues, family issues, and of course that stupid thing called "college" have all been a bit too overwhelming in terms of sucking me dry of any free time and/or motivation to work on things. Thankfully I graduate in May with a completely useless degree, so I probably will have lots of time on my hands being unemployed and waiting for someone to give me a job.

...that sounded a lot more depressing than it should have. I guess I'm a realist.

odd, college was by far the smartest and most useful thing I've ever done (yeah, even my MFA).

Also, congrats on commencement! I hope you find a job you love.