I started with casting his ears in alginate and then making plaster positives, upon which to sculpt. I love sculpting but I always procrastinate doing it because I can do it for hours and hours, these sculpts took about 3 episodes of Veronica Mars’s worth of time.
I am completely satisfied with the finished product though.
I sculpted these with plasticine (which I usually hate), because I was trying a method of moulding which I had never done before; I didn’t know how long it would take, and I didn’t want my clay to dry out (should I had had to leave it over night).
After sculpting I prepared it for moulding; by filling in all the undercuts in the ear cast with clay, and making run-off channels.
I also left a few areas of the plaster clear to create “keys” for the mould to fit into, I did this on both sides.
The next step was to fill the container with plaster halfway and, once it was almost set, dig into it with tools to make keys for the top half to fit into.
As an extra stoke of genius on my part (if i do say so myself), I added snakes of clay along the edges and in the corners, the purpose of these being to make separating the two halves easier (if I hadn’t have done this, it would have been like trying to separate 2 bricks of lego).
And so, after much Vaseline over the surface of the plaster, it was time to pour the top half.
After waiting for the top half to set, I could pull them apart (in which the clay snakes I had made proved very useful indeed).
Moment of truth and… they came out almost perfect! The holes near the top of the ear points I did as a last minute thing, to use for pouring my silicone into, I’m not sure if it was a good idea, but we’ll see.
Just have to finish cleaning out the clay and we’re good to go!
I did have a minor breakage on the ear cast, but its easily fixed.
Can’t wait to do the makeup. Stay tuned…
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