how do I go from a clay sculpture to a wearable item?

Hey everyone,

I'm just getting my feet wet with sculpting a set of gauntlets out of clay, and I'm looking for suggestions on the best way to go from there. It's also important that I can somehow preserve my original work in case I need to make another set down the road.

For example, do I.....

1. sculpt the gauntlets
2. make a plaster mold of the gauntlets
3. make a positive casting of the gauntlets in plaster
4. vacuum-form plastic over the plaster casting
5. put the mold away for safe-keeping

Is this the best way to go? I was just curious about how those of you who make these things from scratch go about reproducing them from start to finish.

Nobody wants to touch this one?

OK, I'll tell you what I do. I make a fiberglass throw-away mold directly from the clay model. When it's cured, I peel out the clay, and clean-up the mold with a bit of mineral spirits. A little sanding might be in order also. Next, I wax and prep this disposable mold, and run a new part in fiberglass, that will be the master. I pull that piece from the mold and clean it up further by sanding the irregularities inherant of clay sculpts. After all that, it gets waxed and prepped for a nice permanent final fiberglass mold. For those who are not aware, The molds for fiberglass parts, are also usually made of fiberglass.