Shellac 2.0 - The Success of Failure

Shellac 2.0

Having mixed up the first batch and poured it into the rubber mould (lubricated with face soap and then topped with powdered pigment), I put it in the oven to hasten the solvent evaporation. But I'd raised the oven temperature to grill some food and despite being underneath a protective steel cover the shellac boiled over, reducing its volume by half. Or else it reduced by half due to that much alcohol evaporating out. Once cool, I dug it out of the mould and the result resembles a Zombie piece of Turkish Delight:

Not a nice thing.

Next trial I used the polypropylene from a bottle of ayran (delicious yoghurt drink), cutting out the flat side walls to construct these small forms. As I was intending to make something along the size of a billiard cue chalk cube, and having learned that the shrinkage of the shellac was around 50%, the resulting forms were double height:

While my intent was to colour the shellac a peacock blue-green, the inherent orange colour of the shellac countered any blue, the mix yielding an olive-y green tone instead:

I carefully filled the forms, and where the shellac managed to ooze out of the seams, I simply kept adding this medical adhesive tape until it stopped:

Very neat and tidy. Sitting for a few hours, the shellac skinned over on top, preventing the fill form spilling when I once accidentally knocked it over with my sleeve. A day or so later, I got impatient and put them in the oven at 50 deg for an hour or so. Complete disaster:

Basically, aside from the heat compromising the tape's adhesive allowing the form to spring open, I realized that the polypropylene did not permit any evaporation other than from the exposed top surface, which, having skinned over earlier, meant that no further evaporation would occur, unless it were violent enough to break through the skin. 

So Shellac 3.0 will need to be new forms and thin layers of shellac poured in over a period of time. Hmmm, now need to find more PP to make more moulds.