Plaster finishing

The first step in finishing your plaster carvings is sanding. To do this, begin with a rough grit (80-120) and work up to increasingly finer grits. If you are looking for a very sleek surface, you might consider wet-sanding your sculpture with 600-1200 grit sandpaper. Finally, you can polish it with butchers wax. Because plaster is porous it will absorb moisture and paint unless it is sealed. If you plan on painting your sculpture or placing it outdoors, seal your sculpture with either lacquer, sandable primer, a 50/50 mixture of pva size or shellac diluted with denatured alcohol. For the shellac, dilute the first coats more so they will stick to the plaster. These sealing processes will affect the surface of your sculpture, you will want to resand between and after coats. To paint your sculpture, you have a number of options. Watercolor and acrylic work great. Water-soluble paints Can be absorbed by the plaster and aplied to its untreated surface for a stain like effect. People even use tea and coffee for stains. Spray paints are also a great option for even, finished paint jobs. Once again, you may want to sand between and after coats with fine grits. Wet sanding and butcher's wax will give you the highest polish. For any questions about how these techniques work or will look, google them. There are a number of forums full of information including sculpture.net. Additionally, if you want to know how something will look, try it on a test piece. Although I am mentioning techniques for coloring the plaster, for this assignment it must be white. Hope this helps!