# Art/Object Issues > Mountmaking >  Clearish Pliacre Substitute?

## Jamie Hascall

I'm wondering if anyone has tried mixing their own Pliacre* substitute. The reason I ask is that in the project I'm currently working on, it would be useful to have a clear-ish epoxy putty to cast a shim out of. Has anyone ever tried bulking a clear epoxy with fumed silica or another material that lead to a stiff final product that can be molded like a regular epoxy putty? If so, I'd love to know what you tried and what results were like.

Thanks,
Jamie Hascall
Chief Preparator,
Museums od New Mexico Exhibits
Santa Fe

*For those recently to the mountmaking field, Pliacre was the standard epoxy putty used for forming supports for objects. It Became Phillyseal R before being discontinued three years ago by Philadelphia Resins.

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## T. Ashley McGrew

I am  really interested to hear about this as well. It would be a very valuable option to have available. We should probably send it out to the PACCIN list but I would also like to post it on the the AIC - OSG (Object Specialty Group) list as well. What I wonder though- given the potential usefulness of this option is if you would be willing to pursue this possibility yourself? I think that I could arrange for oddy testing for whatever you come up with. What do you think?
Ashley

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## Jamie Hascall

I'm going to get some fumed silica from our Conservation Department and see how it all works. Basic internet research indicates that you will get a thixotropic mixture with the addition of 4% of a hydrophobic fumed silica to the resin portion of the mixture. It does appear that the result will be white instead of clear. It will be interesting to see how it actually behaves. I think it would be great to post it to the OSG and I'll keep the list posted with what I find.

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## T. Ashley McGrew

Sounds very cool I am on the road currently so it may take me a bit to post and get back to you. If it works out though it sounds very picture worthy!

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## ingrid

I would like to know if anyone has any more current information regarding the material Apoxie Clay?  I noticed in the Paccin Archive from 2007 that this material had passed the Oddy test at that time and is a workable substitute for Pliacre.  Is this still the case?  Has anyone used it or tested it recently?  I have never used this material before and would like to consider it for a project to level off an uneven base of a stone sculpture (using an isolation layer of course).

Many thanks,
Ingrid

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## T. Ashley McGrew

Hi Ingrid, I am kind of surprised you haven't gotten a response from some of the mount makers among us. I do know that several of the Aves products continue to pass Oddy tests and are in use in a variety of different applications. From what I understand none behaves exactly as Pliacre (or later Philly seal) did but that seems to be ok. Some versions seem to be a stiffer and some a little runnier? I only have this very general idea of the situation because I am in the Mountmaking forum google group where these kinds of things are discussed more frequently than say on the regular PACCIN listserv. You might try and paste this link in your browser,  http://groups.google.com/group/mountmaking-forum get on, and pose your question there. Good luck and please feel free to post anything you discover back here to benefit other who may search us out. Best, Ashley

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