Diving Helmet: Make Your Own Outdoor Sculpture
By Yvonne Anderson | Feb 2021
Sculpture making can often be a lonely affair so that’s why this project was so special. Two friends having a conversation that went a little something like this:
KIM: What do you want to make next?
JANE: An old diver helmet!
Diving helmets from the Victorian period are gorgeous to look at and Jane wanted one to go in her garden. It had to be robust and withstand the elements.
First off, who are we and why do we love sculpting?
We're the crew from Pal Tiya International, and sculpting is what we care about. Between us, we've sculpted for decades and used every sculpting material on the planet (no joke). We created Pal Tiya Premium, a versatile weather proof sculpting material that is non-firing, and gorgeous to use. We share these stories to help thousands of our artists around the world to make the coolest stuff. Thousands of creative people across the globe have fallen in love with the possibilities of our medium. Kim is Pal Tiya International's Creative Director.
Jane was clear that her idea was a surprise to Kim. It was highly ambitious, and would need some precise work. But time was on their side and Jane said she would be patient. Jane is very creative, has some experience sculpting and is an incredibly talented painter. She also sews Victorian Steampunk clothes that are simply stunning.
KIM: What do you want to make next?
JANE: An old diver helmet!
Diving helmets from the Victorian period are gorgeous to look at and Jane wanted one to go in her garden. It had to be robust and withstand the elements.
First off, who are we and why do we love sculpting?
We're the crew from Pal Tiya International, and sculpting is what we care about. Between us, we've sculpted for decades and used every sculpting material on the planet (no joke). We created Pal Tiya Premium, a versatile weather proof sculpting material that is non-firing, and gorgeous to use. We share these stories to help thousands of our artists around the world to make the coolest stuff. Thousands of creative people across the globe have fallen in love with the possibilities of our medium. Kim is Pal Tiya International's Creative Director.
Jane was clear that her idea was a surprise to Kim. It was highly ambitious, and would need some precise work. But time was on their side and Jane said she would be patient. Jane is very creative, has some experience sculpting and is an incredibly talented painter. She also sews Victorian Steampunk clothes that are simply stunning.
Cost
This homemade diving helmet, which can stay outdoors all year round in any weather, would cost approx US$85 to make as Jane and Kim used 19lbs, just shy of half a 40lbs Pal Tiya Premium (currently retailing for US$169.99). Tinfoil, hot glue, paints will be extra.
This homemade diving helmet, which can stay outdoors all year round in any weather, would cost approx US$85 to make as Jane and Kim used 19lbs, just shy of half a 40lbs Pal Tiya Premium (currently retailing for US$169.99). Tinfoil, hot glue, paints will be extra.
If you would like to see more projects like this and get more inspiration then please Join Our Community
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DIY Diving Helmet
Making a vintage diving helmet led Kim and Jane on an amazing journey of research of the different kinds of old time deep diving helmets. They collected photos of the most likely candidates for inspiration, and read schematic diagrams to understand what each of all the knobs taps and bumps were to make two dimensions into three. |
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Kim and Jane began in March 2020 and worked 3 hours each Friday, till Nov 2020. One 4 week break was taken for the Covid pandemic.
It was a delightful, gentle project to do together over several months. With almost all sculptures of this size that we make from our medium Pal Tiya Premium, we use cardboard, tin foil and hot glue to build out the armature shape. |
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Just after Covid lockdown ended the ladies checked the correct outline with a cardboard pattern. The foil cores and temporary stand ins. These remaining components were pulled off the main body and prepped for coating. The ladies never ever used these but it reminded them to make the parts.
Jane wanted the actual helmet part to be separate from the shoulder plate as later she might want to put lights inside! |
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They made every single component separately out of foil, and in a way it could be removed. The pieces were held in place with sewing pins. The work could be checked and rechecked for size and placement till it was perfect. Each piece was manufactured separately in advance of the big core. This allowed each batch plenty of time to cure and strengthen.
For full curing instructions please visit our Curing page |
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Making The Finer Details Of The Old Diving Helmet
One of benefits of working with Pal Tiya Premium is that you can pre-make pieces of a sculpture at any time and attach it later (we'll show you how further down the page). First, Jane and Kim made the lugs that would eventually go on the collar band. They decided to cast in molds they made using Newplast non-drying, re-usable modelling clay. They then cut the delicate complex shapes in the soft green clay and the holes were filled with the dough like, freshly mixed, Pal Tiya Premium. To find mixing instructions for Pal Tiya Premium visit our Mixing page |
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The lugs were then cured over the next week and cleaned with files and blades for crisp edges.
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They also made all the fixtures this way.
Making the main faceplate with Pal Tiya Premium
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Coms panel & lifting rings with connector & flange
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Left window & valve with pipe & 2nd flange
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Right window & large valve
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Top window center decoration
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Once cured, the pieces were all cleaned with files, blades and sandpaper to achieve a smooth metal-like surface. Matt knives and 80 grit sandpaper were used to achieve a smooth metal-like surface.
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Some components needed further modification. The windows needed protective grills (these protect the glass in the real versions, though we chose not to put glass in ours in the end) Newplast modelling clay was filled into the open hole and shaped to cast the grills into. This was the best way to get the complex edges and overlaps. Once cured, the green clay was removed and the grills sanded and filed.
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Sculpting The Core
The breast plate was coated with 6mm Pal Tiya Premium. A scratch coat (deep grooves made with a fork) were established to affix the collar bands on later. You can find more information on scratch coats and sculpting with our medium on our Sculpting page. |
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The plate components, lifting rings and decoration, were backed with a fresh batch of product and fixed in place. The lifting rings had no scratch coat because they were pushed into the Pal Tiya Premium and secured in place with more product.
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Progress!
One week later and all the components and breast plate with collar cured. You can see they added a little more to the collar because it wasn't looking large enough and a scratch coat is present so they can add detail to it the next again week! |
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Jane and Kim scraped clean the collar and carefully drew a grid on with colored pencils to make sure it was perfectly symmetrical.
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Fresh product was mixed and the collar bands were pushed into the grooves of the scratch coat and smoothed.
Yellow marks reminded them to make securing holes for the lugs later. |
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Pre-assembly of the head components gently held in place with sewing pins and tiny tacks of hot glue. Colored pencils are used to accurately place the pieces level and square. They wanted to ensure everything was A OK :)
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Deep Diving Helmet
It was time to get out the big mixer! Jane and Kim wanted to mix a large enough single batch so they could do the helmet in one go without any seams. They added 5% of brown oxide to the Pal Tiya Premium. Read our Painting page for coloring the product |
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The head was coated and most of the components were carefully affixed in place. Whoops! Oh no! They had grabbed the wrong color on the material! Oh well...mistakes happen and they figured they could correct it with the final paint finish later!
Then the friends sat and with the back of spoons they painstakingly worked the Pal Tiya Premium so it was ultra smooth... |
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As previously mentioned. As long as a scratch coat is present on the surface you wish to add to later, you can essentially use Pal Tiya Premium as the "glue" to connect parts. This way you can make and cure pieces ahead of time.
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Jane got to work "gluing" on/or sculpting the final bits and pieces. They propped some of them with foil till they were strong enough.
"Who knew there were so darn many pieces!?" They again, left scratch coat areas where further pieces would be glued on the next week. Since they had forgotten to put a scratch coat on the lugs, they had to use a hand grinder afterwards to cut a square edged notch into the bottom of each one. A bit harrowing, we don't recommend doing it this way. Certainly not for beginners! Far better to remember to put in the scratch coat at the right time ;) |
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A Good Hose Down
The next week, the got the hose out and hosed down and scrubbed the entire sculpture. |
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Then they got to work cleaning and tidying the surfaces, removing the tinfoil and cardboard from the inside now the sculpture was cured.
The colored pencil lines came off easily with isopropyl alcohol. |
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Putting The Deep Diving Helmet and Plate together!
Assembled!! TA_DAAAA! Since Jane always wanted access to the inside, so as you can see, the head can be removed at any time. |
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Painting Time
Jane liked the copper helmets she found as a reference, like the one from the thrift shop and also the verdigris patina that occurs when weathered. |
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Commercial orange-colored concrete stain was used to harmonize the colors. Jeez, it looks so metallic! The irregular natural patterns looks very much like the real thing.
Jane and Kim were VERY happy with the result. |
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Jane then used three colors of turquoise acrylic paint for the aging. A simple wooden frame was built to hold and display the helmet (sorry, no pictures of the frame separately).
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The colors harmonized beautifully. YAY!
Finished, it weighs just under 22lbs/10kg ( approx 19lbs of PTP when cured it holds 13% water weight) complete, has 35 separate components It sits at approx 19 inches tall. The components were all cured by soaking in a container of water over the weeks and months.
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Enjoy some snippets of the project below!
"I found that there were really no limits to Pal Tiya Premium. To get the smooth metallic finish was easier than we imagined. The varying stages of curing allowed us to achieve the finish we wanted." - Jane Craven
If you would like to see more projects like this and get more inspiration then please Join Our Community