Wanting to do more than just christmas cards on my automatic typewriter this year I decided to create a fridge magnet that could hold its own up against the Costco printed family photos that usually hog the spotlight.
This process of creating the magnets was very similar to the scale replica jack stands, only simpler in some of the steps. This design I created entirely on my own. Starting with a map of Seattle I took a trace of the outline and imported that into Blender, a 3d modeling tool that can be used to create animated movies or simple 3d objects to print out. I gave some structure to the border and finalized a size of the Washington state outline. Next I found a silhouette of the Seattle skyline to import into blender. I didn’t care too much about the authenticity of the skyline silhouette as long as the Space Needle was in it. I made an object out of the image, scaled it to a size that would fit with the state, and merged them together. Finally was adding in some text wishing a Merry Christmas. Once the object was completed I did a few test prints to verify the size works and sent out for the model to professionally 3d printed.
Similar to the jack stand; I received the high quality 3d print, cleaned it, and prepped to make a mold. The state model has a flat back to it so a two part mold is not necessary to capture all the sides of the object. The 3d print was hot glued down right on top of some foam core and the mold walls built around it. Silicone was again mixed and poured over the print to solidify. Unlike the jack stand molds this was a lower durometer(hardness) since it did not need to withstand high temperatures of molten metal, these cast pieces would be a urethane resins. This usually means the mold should last longer allowing more pulls out of it and it is physically more flexible as well. After curing the silicone was cleaned up and 3d print removed from it. To allow for a faster molding process, and because I had extra mold silicone, I created a second mold so I could cast 2 pieces at a time.
With the mold complete I could immediately start pulling casts. The resin I used solidified very quickly so I only had 3 minutes from mixing the 2 parts together to the mold starting to solidify. I had planned to make about 20 of the magnets for friends and family so the second mold made for a fast turnout with popping out the copies. A couple of hours later and I had a stack of resin copies. After a quick cleanup with some high grid sandpaper it was time to paint.
I started with a grey primer which was recommended to help for the final coats of spray to stick to the resin. Once that was dry a few coats of pine colored green for the background of the magnet and a clear coat on top of that. Once that was dry I lightly sanded the raised surfaces of the text and the city skyline. With a rough surface I used a foam brush to apply acrylic paints of different colors, white text and a black skyline. Finally using a fine detail brush I initialed the back of the model and epoxied a magnet to the back, paired the gifts with some typed out letters from the Automated Typewriter, and was ready to send them out, hanging on fridges all over America!
