After the Teddy Bear Picnic at Owen's Prep, thought it might be fun to put the teddy mould to work and make some plaster teddies for the children to paint. The teddy mould had been sitting dormant in my cupboard for some time... so nice to put it to work.
A few plaster moulding tips:
- Lightly spray mould with spray oil to help shape to come out. Plaster seems to later absorb any oil so doesn't interfere with painting later
- Ideally use a flexible mould - makes it much easier to remove when plaster is dry (my mould is very hard plastic so each clone took some convincing to come out!
- Don't try using household plaster (like I did with no success) leftover from house jobs - only use Plaster of Paris which sets quickly and for some reason seems to not break as easily. Bunnings sells 1kg of Plaster of Paris for about $4.95 (can probably find it cheaper if you buy in bulk) 1 kg made about 5-6 teddies - so works out fairly inexpensive for children's craft idea for creche/playgroup, etc... Would pay to have a couple of moulds though to make job quicker.
