Have been receiving some questions regarding my recent ‘Fuk-Shu’ sculpture and thought it would be good to write a few lines regarding this piece, and to include some new pictures to give you an idea of the scale (please see below). This is a surrealist fine art sculpture that has been sculpted, moulded and cast by me. You can read further details of the artistic concept behind the piece in this POST. The other intention was for this piece to also have the option of being a functional adult toy. Which it is. Creating a unique, high quality toy took a lot of time and effort artistically and also research wise to select the purest and highest quality material. After doing a lot of investigating on the unregulated adult novelty toy industry, these are some things I found.
1. Adult toys are unregulated by any FDA or Health Departments. They tend to bypass these by stating that these products are ‘novelty items’ not intended for actual use.
2. There are many different materials used to create these items such as pvc, vinyl, plastics, or various rubber blends. Some claim to be made of Silicone but may only contain portions of this material.
3. Lower quality toys tend to contain chemical softeners to create a more flexible product. An example of this chemical or plasticizer is ‘phthalates’, which can be toxic. These can be found in ‘Jelly’ products that tend to have a strong chemical smell and may be sticky, oily or tacky to touch. These chemicals tend to ‘leach’ or bleed from these products, exposing them to skin contact and absorption. Over time they break down and fall apart, sometimes melt when in contact with certain materials.
4. Although not always true, a ‘flame test’ can be done on a portion of the toy to see if it burns. If it does, this is usually a sign of chemical presence.
5. Glass, wood, or 100% Silicone material is what the top quality products are made from.
Taking this into consideration I sought out to only use the most premium quality materials for this sculpture and the mold that it will be cast from. Here are some technical specs on this piece. Entitled ‘Fuk-Shu’ -> the silicone editions of this sculpture are available in solid White or Black. The dimensions are 9’’x9’’x3’’ (22.8x22.8x7.6cm). It weighs close to 2 lbs of pure 100% Platinum Silicone, NO added chemicals of any sort in the sculpture, or in any part of the casting process. This material has been laboratory tested to be skin safe, body safe, and hypoallergenic. It is inert when cured (dried and pulled form the mold) and can be boiled, cleaned with isopropyl alcohol, etc. This material is used in the making of medical prosthetics and FX makeup applications for the film industry. Having personally met with a group of medical prosthetic lab technicians they showed me, and confirmed that they use the same product for their medical devices. If you have any further questions you can contact me HERE
-May 25th 2015
