One Part Plaster Mould..

As I'm making a puppet who is a mermaid, I decided I wanted to use latex as a means of replicating scales on the tail. I have done this by making a one part mould. To do this, I cut a small square of Sculpey and imprinted shapes into it with my modelling tools so it would look like scales. After this, I needed to make a mould box. The Sculpey square was placed on a wooden base and boxed in using plastic seating. Also, I glued the box to the base and filled in all the gaps with hot glue to ensure that no plaster would leak out once it was poured in. As you can see I did have a slight leak, it's always to best to have a bit of plastercine or modelling clay at hand after you've poured the plaster into your box and to wait and check for any small leaks so you can seal them. Before pouring in any plaster however, it is good to grease the inside walls of your box with Vaseline so the plaster won't stick to the walls once it hardens. When mixing the plaster, I added plaster to a cup of warm water and stirred it. I continued to do this until the mixture had a consistency of single or double cream. Once this is done, I was ready to pour the plaster into my box. It always good to start pouring close to the wall and let the plaster run over the subject until it is completely covered. Once I had covered the subject, I agitated the box by tapping the walls and banging the table it was resting on for at least 5 mins to get rid of any trapped air bubbles. This needs to be done otherwise it may affect the outcome of your mould.