If you want to give free rein to your creativity and engage in making bas-reliefs, small sculptures, not differing in appearance from the products of ivory, then you will be very useful couple of simple recipes described in this article.

How to make a mold for a sculpture:

The molds for making bas-reliefs and sculptures are usually made of gypsum. However, gypsum is a very fragile material, in addition, it is difficult to mold a complex shape from it. Therefore, it is better to replace gypsum with casting material Table 1

Table 1

Substance name%
Gelatin or carpenter’s glue30 — 50
Glycerin30 — 35
Chalk (tooth powder)1 — 5
Water10 — 15

Pour warm water over gelatin or carpenter’s glue and leave for 1-2 hours, then heat in a water bath to 80 ° C and with stirring add glycerin. Then the mixture is boiled for 2-6 hours until a homogeneous mass, stirring from time to time. The temperature must be constant.
Then add tooth powder and stir the mixture well. The casting material, when cooled to room temperature, becomes elastic and resilient.
An elastic mold is allowed to stand for an hour in a solution of formalin.
If you keep an elastic mold in a solution of formaldehyde for an hour, it will not soften when heated.
The elasticity of the mold is not softened by heating. Such a mold can be used to repeatedly make plaster castings, as well as castings of ivory simulating composition.

Recipe for a composition imitating ivory:

Table No. 2

Substance name%
Carpentry glue40 — 45
Barium sulfate2 — 5
Chalk (tooth powder)1,5 — 2
Olifa5 — 7
Water45 — 55

The glue is soaked in water, heated in a water bath until all
heated in a water bath until lumps disappear. Powdered fillers are introduced into the homogeneous adhesive solution, stirring it, and then olive oil is added (it can be replaced by linseed or sunflower oil). The resulting mass is poured into a mold, and after hardening it is removed and incubated for an hour in a 5% solution of alum alum, 5% solution of acetic acid aluminum or formalin solution. After that the casting is dried and polished. It does not differ in appearance from ivory (figure 1).

Figure 1 – Example of an ivory figure

P.S.: I have tried to show and describe the tips. I hope that at least something will be useful to you. But that’s not all you can make up, so go ahead and check out https://bip-mip.com

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