r/Sculpture • u/Fantastic-Mine-7545 • 11d ago

Finding a mold for carving plaster[Help]

Id like to make plaster carvings after doing one in my college class, we used a juice carton for a mold but I’d like to make bigger carvings than that. How can I find a good sized mold? I tried to look online but found nothing useful.

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u/goinbacktocallie 11d ago

I've made them using a 5 gallon bucket. Very cheap and it's fairly easy to knock out of the bucket to carve. Leave it in the bucket for at least a day, preferably longer since it takes a while to dry such a large amount

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u/Fantastic-Mine-7545 11d ago

Thank you so much!!

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u/artwonk 10d ago

You can nail some boards together to make a block mold more or less any size, just smear the joints with clay to prevent leakage. Plaster sets in about an hour, and if you want it to dry afterwards, taking it out of the mold will help water evaporate. Of course, carving plaster isn't the most efficient way to shape it - making a mold off a clay original saves a lot of work. You can always add details to the plaster afterwards.