How come you get to have all the fun!?!?

There used to be a product made by Amaco called Melody Mache - I had some
and never used it. Anyway - it is called sculptamold now and it would seem
to fit the bill, especially if you dont want a learning curve on paper
mache. Dick Blick carries it- http://www.dickblick.com/zz331/04/

Get some wet potters clay (cheap and reusable) to shape the microphone, save
money by backfilling with styrofoam or plastic, so the skin of your sculpt
is about 1 inch or so thick. Now this will dryout and crack if your ar not
careful, so put a plastic overnight, etc. The next stage is plaster, ideally
strengthened with fiber, make a mulitpiece shell over the clay about 3/4
inch thick - you have to avoid undercuts, otherwise when you pull the cast
out, it will snag onto the cast. The plaster will not stick to wet clay. The
type of clay, fiber and plaster will probably depend on what the store you
pick everything up at carries - most ceramic supply shops will carry all
three items.

As far as casting, the blurb on sculptamold says this is possible, so follow
their directions. You might need a murphies oil soap as a release between
the plaster and mache. It would be easier to cast two halves, then patch
them together before painting, etc.

The other way is to build on an armature, like they build pinatas, but this
would take some time. If you are lucky, there may be a pinata shop near to
you who could make them for a lot less trouble.



"Ned Sneed" wrote in message
ps.com...
Hello all!

I am looking to cast a prop for the band I work for: it's an oversized
microphone made of papier mache. Basically a pinata that can be smashed
to bits by our singer. I know how to make the original positive and
plaster mold, but I am wondering if there is a way to cast papier mache
into the mold, much like the slip-casting that our ceramics friends do.
I want to make multiple copies of this monstrous mic. I am thinking it
will be about 3 feet long (Shure SM58, for those who want to know) and
hollow, and smashable.

Any advice (other than abandonment of the project) is very much
appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Ned