Step #3 Molding

After you have completed your sculpt, are happy with it, and have allowed the clay to completely dry out you are ready for the molding process. Start out by coating your clay sculpt with several coats of clear coat. If this is not done correctly the mold can end up sticking to your clay sculpt. Make sure you do this in a well ventilated area while wearing a resperator its not good to breath in the fumes. After you have completley coated the sculpt with clear coat you are ready for the molding process. Normally you use a molding agent designed to create a perfect mold of your sculpt. However actual molding agents can sometimes be very pricey. So instead you can use tubes of silicon that can be purchased at Wal-mart or Home Depot. It dosn't really matter what brand you use as long as its 100% silicone. I used three tubes of GE brand silicone. Which cost around fifteen bucks in total. Your also going to need a caulking gun and a paint brush in order to apply the silicone (Fig. 3). Squeeze out some and apply it to the mask sculpt. Make sure to get it into every detail or the finished mask wont look as good. Take your time and apply the silicone to the clay in layers letting each one dry. Its also a good idea to put some plasterers seaming tape over the mold to give it strength. The finished mold looks like this (Fig. 4). Once the mold has dried peel it from the sculpt and you are ready to cast it.