Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Faux Amber

Carim Nahaboo brings us these outstanding faux amber specimens. The stones were cast from tinted polyester resin and have the realistically rounded appearance of wave tossed amber. I'd love to try something like this with more...esoteric...creatures.



5 comments:

Alex Kaeda said...

Replying from my phone, if this has already been received, please ignore.  Phone internet is goofy.

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So.... if you did decide to try this with more....esoteric...creatures....embedded in the resin amber, what are the chances that you'd engage in a little not-so-crass-commercialism with a couple examples?

CoastConFan said...

Those are pretty convincing plastic castings. Keep in mind for making props that represent items coming from specific geographical areas that there are differences. This buttery yellow amber is more indicative of coming from the western hemisphere; generally the Dominican Republic is the largest source. Baltic Amber mostly from the Black Sea area is a much earlier source is generally a reddish orange. Stone age prop figures would probably be best made out of polymers in this darker color. There are some very rare colors like a cherry red and green, they are more opaque than translucent so imbedding some Cthonian horror in these colors would not show off the figure very well. Keep in mind that copal, an amber-like material, was used in great antiquity both as jewelry and as incense. By making a fine model, embedding it in a transparent plastic dyed like amber, possibly in the shape of an idol, you can make an eldritch horror from millions of years ago within a figure made by cultists only to be found or stolen by an explorer. Hideous worms, vile fungi creatures and the like can be fabricated and embedded.

Phil said...

Another "Why didn't I think of that?!" creation.

Great work!

Thorrsman said...

I have to second the idea of a professional job of "more esoteric creatures" being commercially available--and I have every faith in you being able to pull of both the "professional" part and the "esoteric creature" part quite well.

The genuine amber I have handled already feels like plastic to me. This idea has some very interesting potencial. Anything from a grotesque "amber" cane knob to a delicate horror in m'lady's necklace.

Alex Kaeda said...

I love Thorrsmans idea. A grotesque amber cane knob would be flippin' awesome.

Like the guy from jurassic park, except.... instead of providing dino dna, it provides a gateway for cthulhus psychic dreams....