Model Making Workshop 3

Last session we carved out the bodies of our models and this session we started making the moulds for them! I think this session was one of my favourites because we got to use clay!

I took my model home with me so that I could add some clothes to my mini Morrissey and I think it greatly improved the look of my model. I was however, quite unhappy with the eyes, however it was mandatory that we use them, so I feel like perhaps I should have made my models head a bit bigger in the beginning so that they don't look so out of proportion! 

So once we started the actual session, we had to roll out some clay to build some walls for out model. Building walls was important because we were going to fill the area within the walls with plaster of paris to make a mould of one side of our figure. So the walls would sort of act like a trap so the plaster of paris couldn't leak out.

It was very important that we make a base for out model. To do this, we rolled out a piece of clay and then placed our model directly on top of it. We then got a knife and marked around the surface area of our model so that we could cut out a silhouette and place the model back in. Once the model was positioned in the cut out silhouette, we then had to push the clay up against the model, but only half way, since we were going to make two moulds. One for each side. 

Thus we were ready to build the walls. The walls had to be quite thick, thick enough so that they would be heavy to push against the hardening plaster of paris, and also they had to be quite high so that the plaster could fill the area within the walls and completely cover the model. Once they were in place, we made some squares that were cut at a diagonal, just so that we would know where to match up the two moulds once we were ready!

And then we filled the area encased by clay walls with plastic and left it for 30 minutes. The image above was before I shook the table to completely cover my model, but after this, that was all we did for this session and I really enjoyed it. I have used plaster of paris before but it has always set too fast for me because I used warm water instead of cold, which Don told us was a big mistake! So at least I know how to use it for the future!