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

[GreenGriffon]

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.

 

[judz dwedd]

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.