The aim of this tutorial is to have a quick look at making a mould, casting a silicone 'puppet' and then animating it using a bicycle brake cable! Lets start with our character, the UMAJIN mascot. Now I create the model from which the mould will be made. I have created this using a plasticene like modelling clay. This stays pliable, and does not set. Making the model takes a bit of practice, but once you have the shape you want, you could add additional textures like scales or roughness by pressing a small sample of the texture into the surface of the model. I have put a bottle (lemon, lime and bitters, very nice) into the base of the neck of the model. This will be useful to hang onto later. Cut up some cheesecloth, crepe bandage or other absorbant loose weave cloth. We will use this to absorb the plaster of paris and add strength to our mould. For those of you who remember old fasioned casts on broken arms and legs, this concept will be familiar. You can buy plaster of paris, casting plaster or more modern casting materials from your hardware or model shop. Check the instructions for the ratio of water and plaster. Warning : good old fashioned plaster of paris has the active ingredient gypsum. The reaction is exothermic so don't try and set areas of plaster much thicker than about 1 to 2cm - you can actually get quite bad burns from the heat generated by a large thickness of this stuff. If you want to do a life cast (e.g. off a live person) I would recommend using algenates (the same stuff used by dentists for making moulds of teeth). The first step is to put your model in a bucket or similar mess saving area. Then paint on a skin coat of plaster. This is a thin coat to hopefully run into all the little details of your model. Then dip the cloth, and apply this to the model. There is no real rush when you are doing this, you probably have an hour or so before things start to thicken. The main goal is to make sure there are no bubbles under the plaster. I should point out, I could have used a plastic or card barrier down the center of the model where I wanted the mould to seperate. I have just covered everything, which requires me to cut the mould open at the next stage. Here I cut the plaster using a coping saw to get most of the way, and then a box knife to finish off and cut through the modelling clay. Next remove the modelling clay from the mould carefully. Fill in any voids in the mould with air drying clay. All I had around was teracotta coloured.. but it's the shape not the colour that counts. Once the mould is clean and dry apply a very light coat of petroleum jelly. This will stop the silicone from sticking to the sides. I would have had to wait for proper liquid modelling silicon, so I just used a tube of transparent roofing sealant from the hardware store. It's certainly cheap. However the downside is that it is quite jelly like, and needs to be spread rather than poured into the mould. So a warning : patience is required to get roofing sealant silicone to stick to a mould which has just been coated with a greasy substance! Colouring is achieved my adding a small amount of artists acrylic paint. The pigment will colour very effectively without significantly damaging the flexability of the silicone. When the model is removed from the mould, it's quite satisfying. Take your time with this however as silicone is prone to tearing. Next I created an articulated mouth using 2.5mm gauge wire, a pair of pliars and a bicycle brake cable. It's a little bit like magic as you can push and pull the actuator on this long flexible cable and see the mouth open and close at the other end. There is no real science to this, but try and measure the size of the mechanical components you are creating to the silicon model you have made. Now I placed the mechanics inside the model and cut the silicone around the mouth. You might make a model with the mouth open - but because the dragon has such a deep mouth it was easier to cast the mouth closed and add it later. This shows the mouth, a thin sheet of silicone (from last months project) being glued into place with some more silicone and an every handy clothes peg. Finally here he is painted and articulated. I am tempted to replace the painted eyes with some kind of translucent material more like a real eye - or perhaps paint them with a varnish so they just seem more shiny and wet. I should also add the dragons ears / horns at some stage. Good luck with making your own silicone creations, do remember to let the silicone cure somewhere with good airflow and keep it off your hands as it's not good for your skin.