Casting

Equipment : Clay board, wood, newsprint, chicken wire, clay, drill, screw, plaster, paint

1. Get clayboard and a piece of wood a few inches shorter than you want your sculpture to be and work out the placement best suited to your design. Then with the drill create a dent in the clayboard and screw the wood to the clayboard. Once the armature is assembled pad with paper in broader areas of the design and then keep in place with tightly secured chicken wire.

2. Cover the armature in clay and build up till you have a first layer of coverage and then create your design thickening the clay enough so that you won't get stabbed by any chicken wire.

3. Half the clay sculpture with brass cuttings creating keys.

4. Make a bowl of plaster and add acrylic paint so you can differentiate the final layer. Toss onto the sculpture while still runny making sure it gets into the crevices for complete coverage so details aren't missed.

5.Stick to one side and layer on the normal plaster until evenly covered to the same height as the brass cuttings. Then repeat.

6. Once dry remove the brass cuttings and pull apart the plaster halves.

7. If unwanted, destroy the original clay sculpture.

8. Press clay into the inside of the plaster cast, pressing hard to make sure to pick up all the details. Keep clay quite thick so it doesn't crack when left to dry. Make sure edge of plaster levels out with edge of clay.

9. Glue the edges of the clay and then tie together the two halves with wire. Stick your hand into the cast and smooth out the gaps were the clay meets and make sure it is thick and you can't see any holes.

10. Remove the plaster halves and wipe the clay with a sponge, smoothing out any abnormalities and fixing any holes/gaps.

11. Leave to dry out and then fire in the kiln.