WHY MASS PRODUCE PLASTER SKULLS JUST TO RE-MOLD FROM THEM AGAIN?

This is an idea i have been working on since i started making my Troll Screamers, i must get back to those soon. B (Barbara) my wife keeps asking when i am going to finish her mummy Troll Screamer. One of the designs family members came up with lol. Essentially by working from a fixed basic form i can then mass produce a few dozen semi-finished skulls. By making them first in plaster this serves two purposes for me. Firstly i need some plaster skulls for candle sconce creations later anyway. Secondly by making them in plaster first i can then re-sculpt countless 'new' individual skulls as and when i choose.

Being made first in plaster gives me a much tougher form to work with. Especially when sculpting with a craft knife. If i dig too deeply or slip and scratch the surface the tougher plaster skulls give me more room for such slip ups as there is less chance i will dig out too much plaster. Whilst the plaster pulp skulls 'will' be quite strong and hard they will never be as strong as the pure plaster skulls. Of course as i have already said this also gives me my plaster skulls at the same time for other projects.

The differences may only be slight and in most cases you would need to see two or more side by side to see the actual differences. The three styles i am going with for now are mouth closed, mouth slightly open and screaming. Below are a few of the first new 'basic' plaster skulls (mouth closed and mouth slightly open) waiting for the 'new' look to be sculpted in them.

As for the screaming skulls, well i er!, messed up when i trimmed the halves after de-molding. Basically i did not remove enough of the plaster from the edges where the skull halves come together. For no particular reason i like to work from the back of the skull forwards when joining them together i did not realize what i had done on both skulls until they were dry and ready for the final plaster to join them together was added.

I did not realise of course because of how i work. I start on the back of one skull and join that region only first. Then i place it to one side then start another, and so on and so on. When i came back to these two and came to start the fronts i discovered my error. You can see the problem below.

Of course i need simply cut the back of the skulls apart again and trim off some more of the edge of the plaster. It also occurs to me i haven't started making my sons 'gas mask skull tattoos' into real skulls either. These messed up skulls offer my the perfect reason to begin those now. Since the initial gas mask will cover most of the lower face of each skull. The messed up mouths offer no problems at all.

In fact once i post this i will begin work on sculpting the gas masks etc on these two guys in plasticine. You can follow the progress of the gas mask skulls in they're own special feature in a few days as i can work on these in between waiting for new plaster and plaster pulp skull molds to become free etc. Then i have to join the new skulls and sculpt them too.

More soon.