[Materials] Where to get artist clay and fine plaster

I want to get hold of some oil-based artist’s clay for modelling, and fine plaster for making negative molds.

Anyone know a good place to source this stuff, preferably without paying the earth? I don’t need large quantities, just enough for small prosthetics like ears and noses.

Prefer a physical shop so I can grab it this weekend to have a play with.

If plastersene is the same stuff, try the $2 shop. They sell it cheaper than anywhere else I’ve found.

It’s not, but it might do the job.

I was thinking of actual clay, but I think a lot of different modelling materials are used for this sort of thing. Anything that will hold its shape but can be scraped out of the negative mold later will do the job.

Kelsie and I just made a whole lot of puppets heads using plastercene as the positive and and paper mache over the top of them to make the head. We coated them with vasaline and they came out of the paper okay.

Cool! When will the puppet larp be ready? :wink:

I’ve just bought some clay and plaster. Time to get messy.

I don’t know about a puppet LARP, but the puppet show was months ago.

Well… now I’ve done some cast-making, and it was a mixed success. It was all going well enough until the weight of the plaster started breaking the clay nose. It might work out… or might not.

Time to try another approach.

So… I think the second goblin nose mold I made might actually work. Have to wait for the plaster negative to dry out properly before trying latex though, which could take a while.

And I made a goblin ear negative… it’s symmetrical so it could work on either ear. If it works at all. I screwed up the plaster mix with too much water, and it’s still soft a day later when it’s supposed to dry out in half an hour. Next time I’ll take the plaster recipe more seriously!

Who knows what sort of latex prosthetics will actually come out of these things given that they’re my first attempt at making molds, but it sure was messy fun. Will post photos when I’ve got results in latex.

Have got lots of clay left over and am contemplating other projects. I reckon you could make cool sword hilts and pommels from a mold.

I got my clay and plaster from the art shop Gordon Harris, by the way. I think plaster is probably cheaper from DIY stores though.

You could also try Topmark. I picked up a flyer from them at BattleCry and they seem to have some good modelling/prosthetics supplies.

Cool, that looks good. I didn’t realise that Top Mark specialise so much in casting.

Mmmm… alginate! Just what I needed this weekend. Trying to model clay directly onto your own face is a pretty silly business!

For me, that site raises a lot of questions. For small prosthetics like noses and ears, which material is best: liquid latex, foam latex, silicon? I think they used silicone for hobbit ears because it’s translucent like skin.

Also, could we make use of some of the other materials? Could we cast rigid or semi-rigid polyurethane helms from a mold? What material would suit for big monster skin, or should we look at using foam latex to make the whole thing? Could any of this stuff be used to improve our weapon-making?

Some of those handbooks they sell might help answer these questions.

Pity there are no prices listed for anything. i’ve emailed them for a catalogue & price list.

Kelsie has some latex ears that were made as follows:

  • using a ring of cardboard around her ear, she lay on her side and we poured plaster around her ear to make a negative (cotton wool in the ear stopped the ear canel being blocked with plaster).
  • the negative was covered in vasaline and a positive then made from plaster
  • the positive is built up with some kind of putty/plastercene
  • the positive is then used to paint with latex

I’ve got the catalogue now. Have to inquire per item for pricing.

Is anyone else interested in learning more about creating molds and doing casting for prosthetics and props?

Yes.

Fully

I’d love to do some of this. I have played with making molds/casting before using different types of silicone, plaster etc. I’d really like to be involved.

I am prepared to have my head stuck in a bucket of plaster to make a full head cast as well :smiley:

I had an idea last night. We could take negative molds of both helms and plate body armour in plaster or some other molding material, then cast plastic duplicates of them in polyurethane. Excellent for making matching sets of armour for troop units.

Plaster’s definitely the wrong tool for that job. Alginate is the puppy. It goes on liquid and dries into a rubbery consistency. You leave gaps for the nostrils. You can make solid positives from the negative mold. Here’s a picture of alginate being applied:

What I’m thinking is that a few of us could teach ourselves from books. Which means doing it the professional way rather than just guessing at the best way, but also means not paying a professional to teach us how. Once a few of us get the hang of things, we could hold a class and teach some more people.

Casting seems like one of those skills that just comes up all the time for larp. And not just for makeup, for props too. For example, want to make your own guns for a futuristic larp? Shape it in clay (possibly over a toy gun), make a negative and then cast your own guns in polyurethane. Same goes for any solid or rubbery prop you might want to make for any larp.

Oh yeah, I soooo want to learn these skills.

I’ve been surfing sites on this for the past month or two.

Talk to the lady at Top Mark. She is always keen to share how the stuff they sell works. In fact, if there are enough people, she would probably run a class or something similiar. She and I talked about possible classes they might run at BattleCry 2007 like this…

This kit looks like an easy way to get everything for making masks in one package:

monstermakers.com/maskmakingkits.html

The kit costs US$400, but it’s got a lot of hard-to-find stuff in it. Including a full head cast, which would make moulding so much easier.

Might be an easy way to start.

I’m happy to lend armour to have molds taken from.