Jurassic Park Amber Rocks, Props & Hammond Cane!

[DinoCreator]

This is my Jurassic Park thread for everything AMBER! I am going to make all the A props you see in the movie starting with the Hammond Cane with amber egg top. As you can see from the pic below, I have created the egg part so far and have placed it upon a temporary rock base. Infact, I may just leave it there and do another amber egg for the Cane.

After that, I will move onto doing the amber rock chunks as seen in the amber mine at the begining of the movie. For now, I will start my tutorial on creating the Hammond Cane shaft.

Stay tuned!

Hammond Cane amber top with rock base! This particular piece has a spider inclusion, but other variations may have craneflies, mosquitos, ants etc... It sits upon a plaster base painted to look like rock, but egg can be removed.

[GroeneG]

Looks good. How long did it take to make? And did you have to use aggressive chemicals to make it ? :-)

[DinoCreator]

Looks good. How long did it take to make? And did you have to use aggressive chemicals to make it ? :-)

Thanks!

All the research I did to find the right resin, catalyst, pigment, insects and methods etc... took almost a year! The piece you see probably took a day once I had gathered everything I needed. I am now looking to get hold of the Elephant mosquito native to the States. I have found a supplier and need to wait until they have them in stock, as breeding season for these bugs is September.

The clear casting resin is quite toxic and I have to wear a respirator. The base is just super-hardened plaster (plaster polymer) which isn't too bad to use.

Polishing isn't too bad either but it does take a fair bit of time.

[Darkwulf's Talon]

I love it. For some reason I want one just to hold and look at, admiring the little bit of captured life within the gem :-)

Can't wait to see the rest of your creations....

[DinoCreator]

I'm making lots of these with different insects, but will focus mainly on mosquitos and craneflies as I get them. Right now I'm doing the Hammond Cane shaft. I will post pics of my progress asap!

Here're more pics of the egg on rock:

[Nardo]

but the amber rock found in the cave had sharp rigid sides, and wasn't round at all. You could barely see the mosquito through the rough exterior.

The one on Hammond's cane was round and polished, like the one you've made.

just trying to help. Looks good so far.

[kilimangnome]

I have always wanted to make these and have done my fair share of research on how to do it, my only problem was finding the correct egg shaped mold.

[DinoCreator]

This particular piece isn't supposed to mimic the prop seen in the mine, it's just a display base I made for a Hammond Cane Top I did with a 'rock' look!

I will do the mine piece accurately later.

To do the egg shape I just molded a chicken egg. To get it like the Hammond Cane top piece, choose a fairly fat egg, and rub one side slightly flat as it is in the movie. This looks more obvious at the end in the helicoptor where Hammond stares into the amber. To get it even more accurate and like authentic amber, it'd be wise to add some air bubbles so it doesn't look too perfect. Real amber almost always has air/water bubbles and fractures.

[VulgarDragon]

I remember going to a flea market and this guy had several paperweights made from polyresin. There were butterflies, wasps, scorpions, various bugs, and even rattlesnakes entombed inside. I think this is just cool.

[DinoCreator]

My cane is coming along nicely I'm glad to say. I'll show you what I've done before the weekend if I can.

[darkwolf29a]

Incredible! I can't wait to see more of this.

[TeaMonster]

Wow your dedication to this is amazing. Will your Jurassic park be open to visitors?

[DinoCreator]

Sometime in the near future, I plan on doing some full-scale animatronic dinosaurs and testing them outdoors in a natural environment to see how they react to the weather and see how reliable they are (performance and run times).

I will be doing a lot of Youtube videos on these creations and have a section at my website: www.myjurassicpark.com dedicated to this project. The section is entitled 'Theme Park Project' and will start making some progress on it soon.



Good news on small mosquitoes! As well as having a supplier online, I have just fished out a load of moquito larvae from the garden pond which I now have in a container. Once these hatch out, they'll be right in the resin amber eggs... hahahaha!

I'd probably have to freeze them or something first to knock them out. Just one of these critters is capable of producing thousands of eggs so I'll never ever run out!

Here's the stage they're at now:



Another few days and I'll see how they look in a resin egg! I'm not sure what species this is, but I'll assume it's the common house mosquito measuring approx 5 - 6mm body length:



I could do some amber chunks literally packed with these!

Update!

Ok, here's a quick mock-up I did of the Hammond Cane using clay, wood dowel and milliput. I did a quick mold in alginate and cast it in plaster finished with teak woodstain.

This is not to be the actual piece, it's just a practice attempt (learning experience) so I can figure out the best way for me to do the final cane. Enjoy the pics:

[DinoCreator]

I just had a great idea! How about if I do some pieces of amber containing blood-filled mosquitos? Not the giant Elephant mosquito of course, as it's a non-bloodsucker, but the smaller common brown mosquito (I can get loads of these).

Here's a pic of what I mean:

[egerie]

*itches just thinking about it*

[DinoCreator]

Now I've just made some amber egg toppers with genuine large JP style mosquitoes! These are actually of the same species as used for the original cane prop. I successfully did 4 of these today and a near perfect cane shaft, far better than my original attempt. Ebay...here we come!

[Uziel]

Can you sell replica's of movie props without a license agreement with the jurrasic park franchise?

[DinoCreator]

Well, if it is a problem to sell one, then I'd better not. Although, if anyone knows more about this kind of thing.. please tell me, I don't want to step on anyones toes. There're a lot of people creating Predator costumes and selling them on ebay, so I just don't know. Maybe the studios are ok with it as long as it's not a direct copy/recast.

My mined amber rocks shouldn't be a problem as they just look like regular fossils dug out of the ground...part of the natural world.

[mustang_sally]

haha yesss! this is so epic! you really did your research!

[Darkwulf's Talon]

My understanding with creating stuff that is licensed by somebody else is that it is okay as long as you do not start looking like a rival manufacturer and are actually starting to take customers away from their own franchises.

Simple one-offs or small runs of props/replicas fall under their radar and in some cases make them feel proud that they have something that is worth simulating.

[DinoCreator]

Thanks for your reply, that's what I was thinking too. There's so many dinosaur sculptures I'd like to do, I just wish I had more time to work on them.

[DinoCreator]

Some views of the canes that I have now finished. I may frame one on a board and put another inside a perspex case. I cast the shafts in resin and stained them to look like wood. I love this little row I did! One of the bugs is a huge spider with a red colouring.






I can offer eggs separate for £55.

[ArchDesign]

Nice eggs! They look like those in Jurassic Park movie very much I really wanna own one

[Rich_C]

These look really nice, good work. As its just an insect amber I dont see a sale / license problem since they dont own a trademark an amber piece on a stand, unlike say their creature designs. If you dont put the film name in the sales page I'm sure you'll do well