Finished clay.

At this stage the clay sculpture is finished, and ready for the molding process to begin.

Finished clay.

Finished clay.

At this stage the clay sculpture is finished, and ready for the molding process to begin. Making sure the surface is perfect before proceeding, because any flaw will be captured by the mold.

Dripping silicone...

Starting to apply the first layer of silicone. Making sure no bubble gets trapped in the sticky liquid.

First silicon layer completed.

All details and surface texture are captured at this point. Now the goal is to build thickness up.

Silicon layer.

Close up.

Completed silicon skin.

Here is how the mold looks like, once I have applied numerous coats of silicon. It's a long process involving hours of application between hours of "drying" time.

Building the separation walls.

The separation walls delimitate the two halves of the mold. Two parts allows the piece to be extracted from the mold, otherwise it would be trapped inside of it.

Ready to make the hard shell.

Now that the silicone step is completed, I can create a supporting shell in a rigid material. It will allow the soft silicone mold to maintain its form.

Modeling the separations.

This sculpture has a few undercuts. I therefore have to divide the supporting shell into 4 different pieces for thedemolding to be possible.

Modeling the separation.

Same process is used on the other side.

Hard shell.

This material is applied as a paste but will be very rigid after a few hours.

Hard shell making, continued.

Hard shell completed.

It is now left to harden under controled temperature.

Hard shell completed.

Opening the mold.

Front part of the mold.

The face.

Perfect detail reproduction. The mold can now be used to create the final sculpture, in the final material. This expensive, technical process is necessary to save the original form. The clay sculpture is destroyed in the process.