To get a good grip on the piece so I can pull it out of here, I need to clear the clay from the bottom of the original mold. This is going to take some work.
Still clearing clay. I'm trying not to damage the original more than necessary in case there's an issue with the mold.
Just about clear, here. I just need to dig past it enough to get myself a handle so I can pull it out of there. Some of this is about how well you greased up the model in the first place and some is about the vacuum formed by such a tight fit between these two surfaces.
Out! And the original isn't damaged very much at all. Sweet!
You can see a little bit of additional surface roughness from the Vaseline. I'm sure the moisture cooking out of the plaster is helping with this, too.
Here's our negative! Looks pretty good to me. The plaster mix ended up not being enough to cover at first and it was a little thick so I had to mix up two more batches to cover the whole thing. Lame, I say. You'll notice some small air pockets and other surface variations.
There's a big air pocket. Not sure what I'll do with these. I can fill them with clay, maybe. I can mix up some thick plaster to work into the larger bubbles and then paint the interior with a thin plaster wash to fill in smaller air bubbles or something.
Well, now it's all over but the cryin', as they say. I need to do some cleanup in here, maybe a little bit of sanding for any rough spots and a little filling with some compound or another for the little voids. All in all, not too bad. What I really need to do is to remember that I need to mix my plaster very wet and very thoroughly for a mold pour like this. If the plaster's thin it'll take longer to set up, but it'll also tend to avoid bubbles better. I also need to make more than I think I'll need for the project. With this one I made 3 pounds of plaster. That wasn't enough so I made another 3. That still wasn't enough so I made another 2. I had to use 8 pounds of plaster when I thought 3 would do. Keep that in mind.
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