Advice on how to made copies of my latex mask?

[BineyPepPep]

Hello, all! Lurker turned poster. I wanted to see if you all had any advice for a project I'm working on. Be warned, I am a bit of a novice, and may have been using some unorthodox methods.

So I recently finished a latex mask based off of an original sculpt of mine. I sculpted a face/head in Plastalina modeling clay, and painted about 30 layers of liquid latex on top of it. To help the mask keep it's form and be more sturdy, I also added two layers of paper towel into the mask. I ripped up the paper towel into little pieces, dipped it in liquid latex, and applied it to the entirety of the face. I then pulled it off the clay sculpt, but because of the shape of the mask had to destroy the clay sculpt in the process. Additionally, it stuck fairly well to the clay and I had a somewhat hard time pulling it off.

However, the finished product is PERFECT. I did some rough measurements of my head, so it fits very well. The final mask covers my face, both sides of my face, and the top half of the back of my head. The lower back of my head and all of my neck is uncovered. I wear the mask over a lycra head sock with some velcrow applied to the inside to keep it in place.


Anyhow, for my purposes, I would love to have more than one of these masks. I would love to travel with it and not have to worry about losing/damaging it and having no other backups. While obviously I could just start from scratch again with another sculpt, this took a fair deal of time, and it would be ideal to be able to produce a number of copies instead of just going one at a time again.


So, friends, I'm looking for a way to reproduce this mask. Perhaps make a sort of mold out of it where I can pour liquid latex into the mold to make another. How can I make a mold of this mask without damaging the mask? Any and all recommendations are welcome.

Also, it doesn't have to be the "perfect" way. I'm up for out of the box suggestions. I probably should've taken a cast of my own face to make sure it would fit and all that, but I ended up not needing to and the finished result is perfect. Again, I'mm just looking to duplicate this latex mask so I can make 3-4 latex masks.

Thank you all!

-B

 

[Shotzy]

If you plan on casting with latex then I don't think that silicone is the route to go, I'm pretty sure that you can't straight cast latex into silicone. I'd recommend making a plaster mold of the mask, if it needs to be a two part mold then maybe make the mold out of urethane resin instead.

 

[BineyPepPep]

If you plan on casting with latex then I don't think that silicone is the route to go, I'm pretty sure that you can't straight cast latex into silicone. I'd recommend making a plaster mold of the mask, if it needs to be a two part mold then maybe make the mold out of urethane resin instead.

Yes I would love to have the reproductions be latex as well. So I could make a plaster mold of the mask somehow - perhaps make a container out of posterboard hot glued together that would be roughly the shape of the mask. There's no danger of the plaster sticking to the mask, correct? If anything goes wrong I just want to make sure I still have this original. The tricky part is just figuring out how to make a mold of this specific shape... BUT if somehow I manage to do that - can I then just pour a large amount of liquid latex into this mold? I am guessing it will take a loooong time to dry. I painted thin layers of latex on to my mask that would dry in like an hour. Will just pouring straight up halloween liquid latex into a large shape like this still make it able to dry?

 

[Shotzy]

There's no danger of the plaster sticking to the mask, correct?

That is correct, plaster and latex do not bond together. I might recommend hitting the mask with a quick spray of mold release before molding just to be safe.

can I then just pour a large amount of liquid latex into this mold? I am guessing it will take a loooong time to dry. I painted thin layers of latex on to my mask that would dry in like an hour. Will just pouring straight up halloween liquid latex into a large shape like this still make it able to dry?

I've never personally worked with casting latex, but from what I've read you would want to do a "brush on" style casting. Brush on the latex into the mold, slowly building up layers.

 

[Alaneye]

If you make a plaster mould of your mask, your copy will be approximately 10% smaller due to latex shrinkage. If you have enough latex you can fill the mould (assuming you have made the mould well enough to take the pressure) and leave it for an hour or so. When you pour off the excess latex you will find a thick creamy layer of latex covering the inside of the mould which usually cures in about 24 hours if it's warm enough.

 

[BornKilr]

Well, it won't really help on this one, since the clay original is destroyed, but for future masks,a plaster mold should have been made of the clay, in a 2 part mold. (or 3, depending on the complexity). Then you would slush cast the latex into the plaster negative mold.. Then you could make as many copies as you wanted. The problem now is getting to latex to retain an accurate shape to make a mold from it,