Classical Bust - Mold Making and Cold Casting 

Glad you liked it!

Yes, one kit is more than enough for this size head sculpture. Here's another video you may like - lifedrawing.academy/life-drawing-academy-news/how-to-sculpt-portrait

No need to fire. Also, after firing, your sculpture will shrunk in size. I believe this is not what you want.

Make sure that your clay does not contain sulphur, which inhibits silicone hardening. Otherwise, oil based clay is good for the job

Thanks for asking. This is WED clay, which cannot be fired. If you use another clay, there is no need to fire, unless you want to. Keep in mind that after firing, the sculpture will shrink in size, which you do not want for a mold.

Silicone will stick to a firm surface, but there is no need to wait till the sculpture is bone-dry.

Thanks for asking. It depends on silicone, mould shape, plaster and release agent. You can make hundreds if not thousands of cold cast copies before good quality mould would break, providing that you do not stretch it extensively during remoulding and do not use abrasive materials such as concrete, for example.

Of course, you can. It will make the bust heavier though

Thanks a lot 😊

This sculpture was done entirely with cheap WED clay. However, this one is different - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tTMG4Gavxxg.html - because wax clay is expensive the base was done in plaster.

Think of resin as some durable plastic and gypsum as some kind of chalk

@@DrawingArtAcademy I guess what my question should be is, why use two completely different materials? What's the purpose/reason for the combination? Thanks!

High quality material forms the outer surface of the sculpture, but because this layer is thin, cheap plaster is used to build up the thickness inside. This simply save the cost.

@@DrawingArtAcademy I see thanks!

Yes, the silicone mold has to ready for the hard mold. You can apply plaster bandages on top of liquid silicone. Check out this video to see the answer to your second question - lifedrawing.academy/life-drawing-academy-news/how-to-sculpt-portrait

Yes, absolutely

No you definitely can't. Silicone won't suck the moisture out of the slip. Plaster casts are used for ceramic slip

I think they are for proper placement of rubber mold back to the plaster shell to prep for casting. Not sure

Very little because the walls are just 3...4 mm thick

It is not for sale. You can make one yourself

@@DrawingArtAcademy i don't have the molde, sooo help

Yes and yes

Cold casting means that all materials are casted cold without melting

It'll feel warm like plastic. As the very thin layer of metal powder won't conduct heat as effectivly as real cast metal.

Yes, it is heavier because the casted wall is thicker. And yes, you can tone the plaster model

Just search for "silicone paint". Any color would do for coloring a mold

You can apply the next coat of silicone as soon as the previous is touch-dry. If you wait for too long, two layers won't properly stick to each other. You are welcome!

In this course, we teach how to make sculptures from beginning to the end - lifedrawing.academy/correspondence-course

Yes, you can if you want to turn a sculpture into a candle

No, I do not remember. But how it would help you unless you make an exact replica of this bust? Every model would require a bit different amount of silicone and resin. Just use a common sense and a bit of calculation.

@@DrawingArtAcademy I'm thinking about making a similarly sized piece soon and wanted an approximate real world example so I could start budgeting for materials cost

weigh your sculpture, and convert the clay material's density to volume by dividing the sculpture weight by its density. This will be the volume for the amount of casting material, resin in the case of this video. For the silicone mold calculation, approximate the surface area of the sculpture to a regular geometric shape with proportions, i.e. height, width, and depth, matching the maximum values of the sculpture. In the case of the video, perhaps a cylinder's surface area would be a wise choice, in which case the volume of silicone would be greater than 2*Pi*radius*height*desired silicone thickness.

Did anyone ever reply to you about this?

Sure, you can get in touch with us at any time here lifedrawing.academy/contact-us

Although I worked with marble, this is not something that we teach

Glad you liked it!