The making process : Plaster skulls

PROJECT OF THE MOMENT

If I hadn't gone into the world of creative marketing and could go back and do college and University again or if I won the lottery) I would study jewellery and ceramics.

I am bored if I'm not doing something creative in my spare time. Little Wing has occupied my time for the last year and I'm still getting a lot of enjoyment from making jewellery and adding little side projects on to this. The latest being sculpting and moulding. When I worked at Whistles my manager's twin sister was a professional ceramic artist and her work was so beautiful and looked like so much fun to work on and I've always wanted to work on my own (less professional) ceramic/plaster projects. So recently I've been crafting! 

Skulls have always been my subject of choice, particularly with my jewellery and I have recently started casting decorative skulls. Just for fun, but I'll probably start selling them once I build up a collection. I have lots of decorative ideas for them. They are quite time consuming to make, but so fun to do. 

Below are some photos of the making process once I have cast the skulls from plaster. This is the bit that requires patience if I'm making a hollow skull - you have to carefully move the plaster around the mould, let it set, then repeat a couple more times to get the thickness just right. But it's so satisfy taking it out of the mould afterwards. 

For decoration I have been skulpting smaller mexican style skulls and delicate flowers from hand which I bake in the oven to harden. I've also been working on my own hand made beads and made a couple of necklaces.

One of the skulls I was casting broke - which was gutting at the time because they take a long time to do, but then I had a look at the broken face piece and made it in to it's own feature with a hand sculpted rose. I added the broken teeth next to it and made two silver teeth by adding silver flakes.

Anyway, here are some photos of the making part. Such fun.