Concrete Copy From a Clay Sculpture | I Made a Vase

Hello everyone, I want to show you something that I tried recently and I really liked the result, it is quite simple and cheap technique, I think it will be useful for many more things. I used this technique to make a concrete vase, specifically a copy of a clay sculpture that I made.

Well, I will explain the process that I followed and some tips that may be useful :D

• Clay
• Concrete mix or cement, sand and water
• White plaster
• A tube of white silicone
• Oil (is to unmold, anyone works)
• Some recipients

I have taken it as an excuse to try to sculpt something, I wanted to make a vase a little different and it occurred to me to represent an important person in my country, his name is Tránsito Amaguaña and was a recognized indigenous activist.

With some clay and a few hours of unsuccessful attempts I got this result, I was very satisfied.
I let the clay dry for a few days, then refine some details to continue with the next step.

Using the white silicone that is commonly used for plumbing, all the details of the object can be obtained, achieving a practically identical copy to the original.

You could try to make a mold only with silicone but this way it would take a long time to dry, so I only put a surface layer, which is enough, the important thing here is to get the details.
Well, the first thing to do is coat the entire object with oil, so we can remove the silicone without it sticking.

With the object covered in oil we can start to spread the silicone, little by little we are making a homogeneous layer, pressing it to get all the details. For this, it is very useful to wear gloves and wet your hands to press, so the silicone does not stick to the hands and it is easier to handle.

Now you just have to let it dry, one day is usually enough.

Now we need the silicone mold to resist the concrete that we will put on it. For this we make a plaster mold that will simply keep the shape of the object.

Normally with a two part mold it usually works. For this we prepare a little plaster and place it in a container where our object fits, making sure that the ends are thick enough. Now we place our object still with silicone on the liquid plaster, it must be submerged until approximately half, now we let it dry without the object moving.

Once it is dry we make the "keys", they are those small holes that you see in the image, they simply serve so that when we join the two parts they align perfectly. Now we spread a little talcum or similar on the first half so that it does not stick to the other. With this ready we prepare more plaster and pour it to complete the mold.

When everything is dry we separate the two parts and remove the object.

Now it remains to remove the silicone carefully, depending on the object this can be easy or a bit complicated, if necessary you can make cuts in the silicone to facilitate it, I did it and it was not a problem when I poured the concrete.

As in my case this is going to be a vase I needed to leave a space for the hole. I did it with a foam rod that I had at home, I cut a little and I glued it inside the mold in the direction of the hat. With everything ready we place the silicone mold inside the plaster mold, now with a rope or something we press the plaster mold so that everything is well aligned and does not move.

Now you just have to pour the concrete into the mold and shake it a little so that there are no bubbles inside.

They can use the concrete mixture or prepare it, in any case it is important that the texture is fine. I prepared a little mixed a part of cement with two parts of very fine sand, I made a liquid mixture so that it runs very well through the mold.

I let it dry for about two days and then I unmold everything, it was quite simple and I loved the result.

Now it only remains to place some dried flowers ... and voila

I really liked how it turned out, and the best thing is that I can still make many more copies with this mold.

And this is all, I hope this whole process has seemed interesting to you...

Thanks! :D