Making a Plaster Mold of Lion

Posted by parhad on June 28, 2001 at 19:47:44:

The work in clay is done. The Lion is a lot beefier because I need to carve it down in plaster so I need more bulk to work with. I've set pieces of thin metal along the spine...it's called a "fence". I've applied plaster to one side and will continue building it up to a thickness of about a half an inch all around. The plaster will harden in about ten minutes. Then I'll remove the fence, make some indentations along the edge of the mold so that when I make the second half, the new plaster will fill the indented spaces and I'll have exact "keys" that will guide the two halves together exactly to where they belong. When the mold is dry I pry the two halves apart, remove the clay lion...I can re-use the clay...and shellac the mold surface then apply a "grease later so the wet plaster I pour inside doesn't stick to the mold.