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Using a hydraulic Portland cement rather than gypsum as a binder is generally more advantageous long-term for high humidity environments.

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Cement rendering is the application of a premixed layer of sand and cement to brick, concrete, stone, or mud brick. It is often textured, colored, or painted after application. It is generally used on exterior walls but can be used to feature an interior wall.

Depending on the 'look' required, rendering can be fine or coarse, textured or smooth, natural or colored, pigmented or painted.

The cement rendering of brick, concrete and mud houses has been used for centuries to improve the appearance (and sometimes weather resistance) of exterior walls. It can be seen in different forms all over southern Europe. Different countries have their own styles and traditional colors.

Different finishes can be created by using different tools such as trowels, sponges, or brushes. The art in traditional rendering is (apart from getting the mix right) the appearance of the top coat. Different tradesmen have different finishing styles and are able to produce different textures and decorative effects. Some of these special finishing effects may need to be created with a thin finishing 'top coat' or a finishing wash.

Cement render consists of 6 parts clean sharp fine sand, 1 part cement, and 1 part lime. The lime makes the render more workable and reduces cracking when the render dries. Any general purpose cement can be used. Various additives can be added to the mix to increase adhesion. Coarser sand is used in the base layer and slightly finer sand in the top layer.

The application process resembles the process for applying paint. To ensure adhesion, the surface to be rendered is initially hosed off to ensure it is free of any dirt and loose particles. Old paint or old render is scraped away. The surface is roughened to improve adhesion. For large areas, vertical battens are fixed to the wall every 1 to 1.5 meters, to keep the render flat and even.

There is also a wide variety of premixed renders for different situations. Some have a polymer additive to the traditional cement, lime and sand mix for enhanced water resistance, flexibility and adhesion.

Acrylic premixed renders have superior water resistance and strength. They can be used on a wider variety of surfaces than cement render, including concrete, cement blocks, and AAC concrete paneling. These acrylic modified renders are still too brittle and cannot be applied over substrates like fibre cement sheeting, as they will crack on the joints and can allow water to enter the sheet and cause delamination of the coatings (refer James Hardies website & Customer Link). The new high tech polymer exterior cladding such as Uni-Base, and expanded polystyrene (EPS) can have these acrylic modified renders applied to them with the inclusion of an alkali resistant mesh encapsulated between the render coats (refer Coatings manufacturers like Taubmans Armawall Data Sheets for full systems).

Some premixed acrylic renders have a smoother complexion than traditional renders. There are also many various acrylic-bound pigmented 'designer' finishing coats that can be applied over acrylic render. Various finishes, patterns and textures are possible such as sand, sandstone, marble, stone, stone chip, lime wash or clay like finishes. There are stipple, glistening finishes, and those with enhanced water resistance and anti fungal properties. Depending upon the product, they can be rolled, troweled or sponged on. A limited number can also be sprayed on. Acrylic renders take only 2 days to dry and cure-much faster than the 28 days for traditional render.

A significant disadvantage of acrylic render vs. traditional rendering is that acrylic render lacks the sustainability and environmental compatibility of traditional cement-and-mineral render. All buildings have a finite lifetime, and their materials will eventually be either recycled or absorbed into the environment. Acrylic being a synthetic polymer material, it does not break down by natural weathering the way that a cement, sand, and lime mixture will, persisting in the natural environment for centuries as synthetic chemical compounds that have unknown long-term effects on ecosystems. Also, the application and drying process of acrylic resin render involves the atmospheric evaporation of pollutant solvents-necessary for the application of the resin-which are hazardous to the health of humans and of many organisms on which humans depend. Synthetic polymers such as acrylic are manufactured from chemical feedstocks such as acetone, hydrogen cyanide, ethylene, isobutylene, and other petroleum derivatives. The polymer products cannot be fully recycled (using present technology or any that can be confidently expected to be developed), so new raw materials, taken from the finite and diminishing supply of raw natural resources, must always be put into their manufacture, making the process unsustainable. Traditional cement-based render does not have these problems, making it an arguably better choice in many cases, despite its working limitations.

Reichel, Alexander; Hochberg, Annette; Köpke, Christine (28 June 2005). Plaster, Render, Paint and Coatings: Details, Products, Case Studies (Detail Practice).

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Cement rendering is the application of a premixed layer of sand and cement to brick, concrete, stone, or mud brick. It is often textured, colored, or painted after application. It is generally used on exterior walls but can be used to feature an interior wall.

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Gypsum Plaster/Powder is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English "plaster"/Powder usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications. Another imprecise term used for the material is stucco, which is also often used for plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces.

The most common types of plaster/Powder mainly contain either gypsum, lime, or cement, but all work in a similar way. The plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface. The reaction with water liberates heat through crystallization and the hydrated plaster then hardens.

Plaster/Powder can be relatively easily worked with metal tools or even sandpaper, and can be moulded, either on site or to make pre-formed sections in advance, which are put in place with adhesive. Plaster/Powder is not a strong material; it is suitable for finishing, rather than load-bearing, and when thickly applied for decoration may require a hidden supporting framework, usually in metal.

Forms of plaster have several other uses. In medicine plaster orthopedic casts are still often used for supporting set broken bones. In dentistry plaster is used to make dental impressions. Various types of models and moulds are made with plaster. In art, lime plaster is the traditional matrix for fresco painting; the pigments are applied to a thin wet top layer of plaster and fuse with it so that the painting is actually in coloured plaster. In the ancient world, as well as the sort of ornamental designs in plaster relief that are still used, plaster was also widely used to create large figurative reliefs for walls, though few of these have survived.

Clay plaster is a mixture of clay, sand and water with the addition of plant fibers for tensile strength over wood lath.

Clay plaster has been used since antiquity. Settlers in the American colonies used clay plaster on the interiors of their houses: "Interior plastering in the form of clay antedated even the building of houses of frame, and must have been visible in the inside of wattle filling in those earliest frame houses in which ...wainscot had not been indulged. Clay continued in the use long after the adoption of laths and brick filling for the frame." Where lime was not available or easily accessible it was rationed or substituted with other binders. In Martin E. Weaver 's seminal work he says, "Mud plaster consists of clay or earth which is mixed with water to give a "plastic" or workable consistency. If the clay mixture is too plastic it will shrink, crack and distort on drying. It will also probably drop off the wall. Sand and fine gravels were added to reduce the concentrations of fine clay particles which were the cause of the excessive shrinkage." Straw or grass was added sometimes with the addition of manure.

In the Earliest European settlers' plasterwork, a mud plaster was used or more usually a mud-lime mixture. McKee writes, of a circa 1675 Massachusetts contract that specified the plasterer, "Is to lath and siele the four rooms of the house betwixt the joists overhead with a coat of lime and haire upon the clay; also to fill the gable ends of the house with ricks and plaister them with clay. 5. To lath and plaster partitions of the house with clay and lime, and to fill, lath, and plaister them with lime and haire besides; and to siele and lath them overhead with lime; also to fill, lath, and plaster the kitchen up to the wall plate on every side. 6. The said Daniel Andrews is to find lime, bricks, clay, stone, haire, together with laborers and workmen... ." Records of the New Haven colony in 1641 mention clay and hay as well as lime and hair also. In German houses of Pennsylvania the use of clay persisted."

Old Economy Village is one such German settlement. The early Nineteenth-Century utopian village in present-day Ambridge, Pennsylvania, used clay plaster substrate exclusively in the brick and wood frame high architecture of the Feast Hall, Great House and other large and commercial structures as well as in the brick, frame and log dwellings of the society members. The use of clay in plaster and in laying brickwork appears to have been a common practice at that time not just in the construction of Economy village when the settlement was founded in 1824. Specifications for the construction of, "Lock keepers houses on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, written about 1828, require stone walls to be laid with clay mortar, excepting 3 inches on the outside of the walls...which (are) to be good lime mortar and well pointed." The choice of clay was because of its low cost, but also the availability. At Economy, root cellars dug under the houses yielded clay and sand (stone), or the nearby Ohio river yielded washed sand from the sand bars; and lime outcroppings and oyster shell for the lime kiln. Other required building materials were also sourced locally.

The surrounding forests of the new village of Economy provided straight grain, old- growth oak trees for lath. Hand split lath starts with a log of straight grained wood of the required length. The log is spit into quarters and then smaller and smaller bolts with wedges and a sledge. When small enough, a froe and mallet were used to split away narrow strips of lath - unattainable with field trees and their many limbs. Farm animals pastured in the fields cleared of trees provided the hair and manure for the float coat of plaster. Fields of wheat and grains provided straw and other grasses for binders for the clay plaster. But there was no uniformity in clay plaster recipes.

Straw or grass was added sometimes with the addition of manure providing fiber for tensile strength as well as protein adhesive. Proteins in the manure act as binders. The hydrogen bonds of proteins must stay dry to remain strong, so the mud plaster must be kept dry. With braced timber framed structures clay plaster was used on interior walls and ceilings as well as exterior walls as the wall cavity and exterior cladding isolated the clay plaster from moisture penetration. Application of clay plaster in brick structures risked water penetration from failed mortar joints on the exterior brick walls. In Economy Village, the rear and middle wythes of brick dwelling walls are laid in a clay and sand mortar with the front wythe bedded in a lime and sand mortar to provide a weather proof seal to protect from water penetration. This allowed a rendering of clay plaster and setting coat of thin lime and fine sand on exterior-walled rooms.

Split lath was nailed with square cut lath nails, one into each framing member. With hand split lath the plasterer had the luxury of making lath to fit the cavity being plastered. Lengths of lath two to six foot are not uncommon at Economy Village. Hand split lath is not uniform like sawn lath. The straightness or waviness of the grain affected the thickness or width of each lath, and thus the spacing of the lath. The clay plaster rough coat varied to cover the irregular lath. Window and door trim as well as the mudboard (baseboard) acted as screeds. With the variation of the lath thickness and use of coarse straw and manure, the clay coat of plaster was thick in comparison to later lime-only and gypsum plasters. In Economy Village, the lime top coats are thin veneers often an eighth inch or less attesting to the scarcity of limestone supplies there.

Clay plasters with their lack of tensile and compressive strength fell out of favor as industrial mining and technology advances in kiln production led to the exclusive use of lime and then gypsum in plaster applications. However, clay plasters still exist after hundreds of years clinging to split lath on rusty square nails. The wall variations and roughness reveal a hand-made and pleasing textured alternative to machine-made modern substrate finishes. But clay plaster finishes are rare and fleeting. According to Martin Weaver, "Many of North America's historic building interiors...are all too often...one of the first things to disappear in the frenzy of demolition of interiors which has unfortunately come to be a common companion to "heritage preservation" in the guise of building rehabilitation."

Gypsum plaster/Powder

Gypsum plaster/powder[12], or plaster of Paris,[13] or P.O.P. consists of white powder of calcium sulphate hemihydrate. The chemical formula is given as .

The name "plaster of Paris" came from the fact that it was first of all made by heating gypsum which was mainly found in Paris. A large gypsum deposit at Montmartre in Paris led "calcined gypsum" (roasted gypsum or gypsum plaster) to be commonly known as "plaster of Paris".

Gypsum plaster/Powder, or plaster of Paris, is produced by heating gypsum to about 120-180 °C (248-356 °F) in kiln:

heat (released as steam).

Plaster of Paris has a remarkable property of setting into a hard mass on wetting with water.

When the dry plaster powder is mixed with water, it rehydrates over time into gypsum. The setting of plaster slurry starts about 10 minutes after mixing and is complete in about 45 minutes. The setting of plaster of Paris is accompanied by a slight expansion of volume due to which it is used in making casts for statue, toys, etc. The initial matrix consists mostly of orthorhombic crystals - the kinetic product. Over the next 72 hours the rhombic crystals give way to an interlocking mass of monoclinic crystal needles and the plaster increases in hardness and gains strength. If plaster or gypsum is heated above 130 °C, (266 °F) , hemihydrate is formed, which will also re-form as gypsum if mixed with water.

Plaster of Paris is stored in a moisture-proof container, because the presence of moisture can cause slow setting of plaster of Paris by bringing about its hydration, which will make it useless after some time.

On heating to 180 °C (350°F), the nearly water-free form, called γ-anhydrite (CaSO ₄· nH ₂O where n = 0 to 0.05) is produced. γ-Anhydrite reacts slowly with water to return to the dihydrate state, a property exploited in some commercial desiccants. On heating above 250 °C (480°F), the completely anhydrous form called β-anhydrite or dead burned plaster is formed.

Uses of Plaster of Paris

It is used in hospitals for setting fractured bones in the right position to ensure correct healing. It keeps the fractured bone straight. This use is based on the fact that when plaster of Paris is mixed with a proper quantity of water and applied around the fractured limbs it sets into a hard mass, In this way it keeps the bone joints in a fixed position. It is also used for making castes in dentistry. (see Plaster in Medicine)

It is used in making toys, decorative materials, cheap ornaments, cosmetics, black-board, chalk and casts for statue.

It is used as a fire-proofing material. (see Plaster in Fire protection)

It is used in chemistry laboratory for sealing air-gaps in apparatus when air-tight arrangement is required.

It is used for making surfaces like the walls of a house smooth before painting them and for making ornamental designs on the ceilings of houses and other buildings. (see Plaster In decorative architecture)

Lime plaster is a mixture of calcium hydroxide and sand (or other inert fillers). Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes the plaster to set by transforming the calcium hydroxide into calcium carbonate ( limestone). Whitewash is based on the same chemistry.

To make lime plaster, limestone (calcium carbonate) is heated above approximately 850 °C (1600°F) to produce quicklime (calcium oxide). Water is then added to produce slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), which is sold as a wet putty or a white powder. Additional water is added to form a paste prior to use. The paste may be stored in airtight containers. When exposed to the atmosphere, the calcium hydroxide very slowly turns back into calcium carbonate through reaction with atmospheric carbon dioxide, causing the plaster to increase in strength.

Lime plaster was a common building material for wall surfaces in a process known as lath and plaster, whereby a series of wooden strips on a studwork frame was covered with a semi-dry plaster that hardened into a surface. The plaster used in most lath and plaster construction was mainly lime plaster, with a cure time of about a month. To stabilize the lime plaster during curing, small amounts of plaster of Paris were incorporated into the mix. Because plaster of Paris sets quickly, "retardants" were used to slow setting time enough to allow workers to mix large working quantities of lime putty plaster. A modern form of this method uses expanded metal mesh over wood or metal structures, which allows a great freedom of design as it is adaptable to both simple and compound curves. Today this building method has been partly replaced with drywall, also composed mostly of gypsum plaster. In both these methods, a primary advantage of the material is that it is resistant to a fire within a room and so can assist in reducing or eliminating structural damage or destruction provided the fire is promptly extinguished.

Lime plaster is used for frescoes, where pigments, diluted in water, are applied to the still wet plaster.

USA and Iran are the main plaster producers in the world.[citation needed ]

Cement plaster is a mixture of suitable plaster, sand, Portland cement and water which is normally applied to masonry interiors and exteriors to achieve a smooth surface. Interior surfaces sometimes receive a final layer of gypsum plaster. Walls constructed with stock bricks are normally plastered while face brick walls are not plastered. Various cement-based plasters are also used as proprietary spray fireproofing products. These usually use vermiculite as lightweight aggregate. Heavy versions of such plasters are also in use for exterior fireproofing, to protect LPG vessels, pipe bridges and vessel skirts.

Cement plaster was first introduced in America around 1909 and was often called by the generic name adamant plaster after a prominent manufacturer of the time. The advantages of cement plaster noted at that time were its strength, hardness, quick setting time and durability.

Heat-resistant plaster is a building material used for coating walls and chimney breasts and for use as a fire barrier in ceilings. Its purpose is to replace conventional gypsum plasters in cases where the temperature can get too high for gypsum plaster to stay on the wall or ceiling.

Plaster may also be used to create complex detailing for use in room interiors. These may be geometric (simulating wood or stone) or naturalistic (simulating leaves, vines, and flowers). These are also often used to simulate wood or stone detailing found in more substantial buildings.

In modern days this material is also used for False Ceiling. In this, the powder form is converted in a sheet form and the sheet is then attached to the basic ceiling with the help of fasteners. It is done in various designs containing various combinations of lights and colors. The common use of this plaster can be seen in the construction of houses. After the construction, direct painting is possible (the French do it), but elsewhere plaster is used. The walls are painted with the plaster which (in some countries) is nothing but calcium carbonate. After drying the calcium carbonate plaster turns white and then the wall is ready to be painted. Elsewhere in the world, such as the UK, ever finer layers of plaster are added on top of the plasterboard (or sometimes the brick wall directly) to give a smooth brown polished texture ready for painting.

Many of the greatest mural paintings in Europe, like Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, are executed in fresco, meaning they are painted on a thin layer of wet plaster, called intonaco; the pigments sink into this layer so that the plaster itself becomes the medium holding them, which accounts for the excellent durability of fresco. Additional work may be added a secco on top of the dry plaster, though this is generally less durable.

Plaster (often called stucco in this context) is a far easier material for making reliefs than stone or wood, and was widely used for large interior wall-reliefs in Egypt and the Near East from antiquity into Islamic times (latterly for architectural decoration, as at the Alhambra), Rome, and Europe from at least the Renaissance, as well as probably elsewhere. However, it needs very good conditions to survive long in unmaintained buildings - Roman decorative plasterwork is mainly known from Pompeii and other sites buried by ash from Mount Vesuvius.

Plaster may be cast directly into a damp clay mold. In creating this piece molds (molds designed for making multiple copies) or waste molds (for single use) would be made of plaster. This "negative" image, if properly designed, may be used to produce clay productions, which when fired in a kiln become terra cotta building decorations, or these may be used to create cast concrete sculptures. If a plaster positive was desired this would be constructed or cast to form a durable image artwork. As a model for stonecutters this would be sufficient. If intended for producing a bronze casting the plaster positive could be further worked to produce smooth surfaces. An advantage of this plaster image is that it is relatively cheap; should a patron approve of the durable image and be willing to bear further expense, subsequent molds could be made for the creation of a wax image to be used in lost wax casting, a far more expensive process. In lieu of producing a bronze image suitable for outdoor use the plaster image may be painted to resemble a metal image; such sculptures are suitable only for presentation in a weather-protected environment.

Plaster expands while hardening then contracts slightly just before hardening completely. This makes plaster excellent for use in molds, and it is often used as an artistic material for casting. Plaster is also commonly spread over an armature (form), made of wire mesh, cloth, or other materials; a process for adding raised details. For these processes, limestone or acrylic based plaster may be employed, known as stucco.[citation needed ]

Products composed mainly of plaster of Paris and a small amount of Portland cement are used for casting sculptures and other art objects as well as molds. Considerably harder and stronger than straight plaster of Paris, these products are for indoor use only as they rapidly degrade in the rain.

Plaster is used by many morticians and funeral home directors to recreate destroyed tissue, reconnect severed limbs to corpses, and to fill wounds sustained during the incident that caused the death.

Plaster is widely used as a support for broken bones; a bandage impregnated with plaster is moistened and then wrapped around the damaged limb, setting into a close-fitting yet easily removed tube, known as an orthopedic cast.

Plaster is also used in preparation for radiotherapy when fabricating individualized immobilization shells for patients. Plaster bandages are used to construct an impression of a patient's head and neck, and liquid plaster is used to fill the impression and produce a plaster bust. The transparent material polymethyl methacrylate (Plexiglas, Perspex) is then vacuum formed over this bust to create a clear face mask which will hold the patient's head steady while radiation is being delivered.[citation needed ]

In dentistry, plaster is used for mounting casts or models of oral tissues. These diagnostic and working models are usually made from dental stone, a stronger, harder and denser derivative of plaster which is manufactured from gypsum under pressure. Plaster is also used to invest and flask wax dentures, the wax being subsequently removed by "burning out," and replaced with flowable denture base material. The typically acrylic denture base then cures in the plaster investment mold. Plaster investments can withstand the high heat and pressure needed to ensure a rigid denture base. Moreover, in dentistry there are 5 types of gypsum products depending on their consistency and uses: 1) impression plaster (type 1), 2) model plaster (type 2), dental stones (types 3, 4 and 5)[citation needed ]

In orthotics and prosthetics, plaster bandages traditionally were used to create impressions of the patient's limb (or residuum). This negative impression was then, itself, filled with plaster of Paris, to create a positive model of the limb and used in fabricating the final medical device.

In addition, dentures (false teeth) are made by first taking a dental impression using a soft, pliable material that can be removed from around the teeth and gums without loss of fidelity and using the impression to creating a wax model of the teeth and gums. The model is used to create a plaster mold (which is heated so the wax melts and flows out) and the denture materials are injected into the mold. After a curing period, the mold is opened and the dentures are cleaned up and polished.

Plasters have been in use in passive fire protection, as fireproofing products, for many decades.

The finished plaster releases water vapor when exposed to flame, acting to slow the spread of the fire, for as much as an hour or two depending on thickness. It also provides some insulation to retard heat flow into structural steel elements, that would otherwise lose their strength and collapse in a fire. Early versions of these plasters have used asbestos fibres, which have by now been outlawed in industrialized nations and have caused significant removal and re-coating work. More modern plasters fall into the following categories:

fibrous (including mineral wool and glass fiber)

cement mixtures either with mineral wool or with vermiculite

gypsum plasters, leavened with polystyrene beads, as well as chemical expansion agents to decrease the density of the finished product

One differentiates between interior and exterior fireproofing. Interior products are typically less substantial, with lower densities and lower cost. Exterior products have to withstand more extreme fire and other environmental conditions. Exterior products are also more likely to be attractively tooled, whereas their interior cousins are usually merely sprayed in place. A rough surface is typically forgiven inside of buildings as dropped ceilings often hide them. Exterior fireproofing plasters are losing ground to more costly intumescent and endothermic products, simply on technical merit. Trade jurisdiction on unionized construction sites in North America remains with the plasterers, regardless of whether the plaster is decorative in nature or is used in passive fire protection. Cementitious and gypsum based plasters tend to be endothermic. Fireproofing plasters are closely related to firestop mortars. Most firestop mortars can be sprayed and tooled very well, due to the fine detail work that is required of firestopping, which leads their mix designers to utilise concrete admixtures, that enable easier tooling than common mortars.

Powder bed and inkjet head 3D printing is commonly based on the reaction of gypsum plaster with water, where the water is selectively applied by the inkjet head.

The chemical reaction that occurs when plaster is mixed with water is exothermic. When plaster sets, it can reach temperatures of more than 60 °C (140°F) and, in large volumes, can burn the skin. In January 2007, a secondary school student in Lincolnshire, England sustained third-degree burns after encasing her hands in a bucket of plaster as part of a school art project. The burns were so severe she required amputation of both her thumbs and six of her fingers.

Some variations of plaster that contain powdered silica or asbestos may present health hazards if inhaled. Asbestos is a known irritant when inhaled and can cause cancer, especially in people who smoke, and inhalation can also cause asbestosis. Inhaled silica can cause silicosis and (in very rare cases) can encourage the development of cancer. Persons working regularly with plaster containing these additives should take precautions to avoid inhaling powdered plaster, cured or uncured. (Note that asbestos is rarely used in modern plaster formulations because of its carcinogenic effects.)

People can be exposed to plaster of Paris in the workplace by breathing it in, swallowing it, skin contact, and eye contact. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the legal limit ( permissible exposure limit) for plaster of Paris exposure in the workplace as 15 mg/m ³ total exposure and 5 mg/m ³ respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a Recommended exposure limit (REL) of 10 mg/m ³ total exposure and 5 mg/m ³ respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday.

Bughole, a structural defect in concrete or plaster

Calcium Sulfate

Cast Courts (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Harl, a lime-plaster exterior finish used on buildings in Scotland

International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers

Intumescent, a fire-protection additive in some plasters

Intonaco, the plaster coat on and in which a fresco is painted

Joint compound

Lath and plaster, a construction method

Opus albarium, a marble plaster used in fine decorative work

Passive fire protection

Parge coat, a thin layer of plaster added to an outside wall

Pargeting, a decorative or waterproofing plastering applied to building walls

Phosphogypsum

Plasterwork

Polished plaster

Ready-mix lightweight joint compound

Roughcast, an exterior finish used on buildings

Tadelakt, a waterproof plaster made by ramming, polishing, and staining with soap

Wattle and daub, a construction method

Paigah Tombs, Hyderabad, India, intricate stucco work made in 19th century

Yeseria, a style of plaster sculpture used historically in the Middle East, Magreb, and Iberian Peninsula

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Gypsum Plaster/Powder is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English "plaster"/Powder usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications.

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Paster Master guide to home business Work at Home pg 3

Starting your own statuary business
the Making of a Latex Mold Hey! What the heck is that guy in the kilt doing behind that tree? Tapping Hevea Brasiliensis Originally native to South America,the 50 ft. tall Hevea trees are now grown on plantations in the far east. The trees are tapped in a very conscientious way so as not to injure the cambium layer under the bark. Each tree produces about one cup of "field " latex per day. This "field" latex is collected in glass or ceramic containers and brought to processing centers where the solids in the milky substance are concentrated into raw or crude rubber. Ammonia acts as a preservative for the delicate liquid and may be added to certain latex formulations before they are shipped to manufacturers for further processing. Because latex rubber is a natural product it requires special handling and care. Liquid latex must not be allowed to freeze, threrefor it is difficult to ship during severe cold spells. Latex molds must be stored and used out of direct sunlight. Sunlight dries and cracks the rubber. Petroleum products such as motor oil will deteriorate natural rubber. Do not use them on latex molds. Latex shrinks when applied to a model. The less solids in the formulation the more it will shrink. Also a high solids content is essential to produce a strong tear resistant mold rubber. Buy from a reputable supplier to reduce the risk of getting a low solids latex mold material. You may have to consider making your model slightly larger to compensate for the shrinkage factor. What do I need to make a latex mold? You will need a model, some shellac, a good quality mold making latex and some brushes. Latex is a natural product. It is not the sap but rather a unique milky substance found in some plants, most notably the Hevea Brasilienesis tree. To date man has not been able to duplicate the elasticity of this marvelous creation of nature. Only latex is truly rubber. The word rubber comes to us from one Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) who used it to rub out pencil marks. Thus the English use of the word rubber for eraser. Yes. In Britain the lucky little rascals are given rubbers on the very first day of school.

Priestley, a rather unique individual, it seems not only sat around thinking up names for new products, he also discovered oxegen, founded the Unitarian church in America, was an Englishman who sympathized with the American revolution( which didn't win him a lot of friends in England) , is called the father of pneumatics (and rubbers), amongst other things. ( just FYI ) Let the Brushing Begin If the model is not mounted to a board,as mentioned earlier get a board about 3 " larger all the way around than the model. Drill a 1/2" hole in the center of the board. If the model is not mounted to a board,as mentioned earlier get a board about 3 " larger all the way around than the model. Drill a 1/2" hole in the center of the board. I start by brushing latex on the board surrounding the model.. This cleans the brush and removes any loose hairs and deposits them in a place where they will not affect the finished casting. Do not brush all of the rubber off of the brush when applying rubber to the model. Before the brush becomes totally dry dip it back in your supply of latex so that it always remains wet while brushing. This will keep the rubber from balling up on your brush making it unusable. If you place the brush in a covered jar of latex rubber between coats it will remain soft and usable through the entire job Some brush cleaning tips Another method to keep your brush fresh and ready for use is to wash the brush out with amonia between coats or you may just let it soak in a jar of amonia if you wish. Make sure the bristles are totally covered or you will get a ring of latex that forms on top of theamonia infused into the bristles. Some mold makers soak thier brushes in a jar of soapy water. That helps make cleaning the brush easier. Dry the brush on a rag and be sure to start your brushing on the board if you use this method. If you wish to clean a brush that has become hopelessly clogged with hardened rubber soak it in a container of lacquer thinner. It will turn into a soft gellatinous goo that you can brush out with a fork or wire brush. This could be a lifesaver if you only have one brush left and you have to get the job done pronto. BrushingTechnique You must carefully brush the latex into every crivice. If tiny air bubbles form in the first few coats caref ully brush them out with as few strokes as possible. Do not over brush. Some mold shops spray the first three coats of latex rubber on, just to be sure they get every minute spot. That's how important the first few coats are. You want to capture all of the fine detail of the model without leaving any imperfections in the rubber. Later coats may be applied less cautiously, in regards to minute air bubbles. Wait until all the whiteness is gone from the rubber before brushing on the next coat.
On small items such as the hedgehog I use a small brush such as an acid brush for the first couple of coats. After that I use a larger brush. The acid brush is about 1/2 inch wide with a rolled tin handle. Acid brushes are available in the plumbing section of yoiur hardware store. They may cost 25 to 30 cents each. The reason I start with a small brush like this rather than a great big wide one is that it forces you to work very carefully. You wouldn't want to do the entire piece with a brush this small. On larger peices I start with a larger brush. The first 2 coats need to be applied meticulously and very thinly. Successive coats can be applied with a wider brush ( 1" or 1 1/2"). I will apply 12 to 14 coats to a piece this size allowing them to dry thoroughly betwqeen coats. This may be 1 to 4 hrs. between coats depending on how quickly they are drying.

Temperature, humidity, and air circulation have the greatest effect on the drying time. A room temperature of about 75º would be excellent for brushing on ru bber. I have tried brushing on latex in 85ºor 90º temperatures with fans blowing at hurricane force because a client needed a mold in a real hurry. I was putting on a coat about every 20 minutes or half hour. These attempts at breakneck speed mold making were not, let us say, entirely successful.. Without proper drying time between coats moisture is trapped under the rubber causing large air pockets to rise up. In one instance I ended up having to poke a thin cocktail straw into the air bubble and suck out the nasty tasting pocket of air. Of course I did have to go out and order a cocktail in order to get the tiny straw so it wasn't all for naught.
Second coat being applied. Notice how w hite the latex is at this point. It will turn a tan color when it is dry. The first coat has dried to a translucent tan color with no white spots remaining. It is important that you do not seal in wet rubber by brushing a fresh coat on top of it. Themold will not hold its shape where wet rubber has been sealed in. This frequently happens at the base of the figure where it meets the wooden board. I brush out about 3" out from the base of the sculpture on the board. When the mold is done this will give me a firm piece of rubber to grab onto to pull the mold off the model. I also want the rubber to be wider than the back up shell so that when castings are being poured I can scrape any excess casting material off the mold without the back up shell interfering with the process. Since this is a beginning mold making course this will be a simple mold with a 2 piece back up shell. I have calculated that the diameter of the mold opening at the base of the model is approximately half that of the widest point of the model. If the model were wider than that or if the mold opening (cast hole) were smaller than that, I might have to put a seam or web in the mold to allow it to open wide enough to come off the casting.We can get into more difficult molds that require webs at a later date. I don't like to make the mold stretch to more than twice it's diameter. It is difficult to pull the rubber over the casting and may break a "green" concrete casting when it has to stretch that far. It may distort the rubber with repeated use. Keep on a brushin' Keep brushing on the coats. As the detail of the piece slowly becomes lost in latex the figure takes on a rounded appearance. If you want to check on the thickness of the latex lift up the edge of the rubber on the board. You are going to brush on about an eighth of an inch, give or take a little. I brushed on 12 coats on this model. You may need anywher from 10 to 14 coats depending on how much rubber you apply with each coat. Moving air speeds drying ! A fan blowing on the latex will reduce drying time. Commercial outfits have 6 or 8 fans blowin' up a storm to hurry things along. After all the coats have been applied you may let the mold set for a week so that it will hold it's shape. I prefer to heat cure it. Look over the mold for places that will cause the backup shell to "hang up" or lock itself onto the mold. These nasty little problem spots are called undercuts. Mold makers hate them with a passion. The line going down the center of the mold is where the 2 piece backup shell will separate.
Shrinkage is also increased when force drying latex at high temperatrure especially if you brush on heavy coats. I havefound that the rubber pulls away from the model where there is a valley between two high points. It leaves a gap between the rubber and the model as it shrinks up. You may get away with forcing the drying process once or twice or even a few times but the one time you are really counting on having this mold in a hurry, disaster will strike. It's some kind of unwritten rule!
For s mall undercut areas make some thick latex paste by filling a small paper cup, like a small bathroom drinking cup, with latex. Let the latex sit overnight without covering the cup. By the next day it will have thickened into a paste. There will be a skin on top of the latex rubber. Break through the latex skin with a flat tool. Scoop out some thick latex with the tool. Spread it evenly on the undercut area. To successfully fill this undercut I had to apply two layers 1/8 " thick. Apply the first layer 1/8 "thick, let it dry overnight then apply the second layer. Do not put on more than 1/8 " in a single layer. Do not brush coats of rubber over the patch. Let it Dry!
After the initial detail coats some mold makers apply the next coat with all the strokes going in one direction like up and down then brush the next coat from side to side so the coats have a laminated effect, much in the way plywood is made with the layers of grain crossing each other. That's fine for a large latex mold but on one this size it's just not practical that's just to much exactitude for my intestinal fortitude. My style is a less formal technique with X pattern strokes criss crossing each other the whole time. Which ever method you use try to keep large runs or drips from forming. They usually become noticeable after you've finished brushing on a coat. At which time they are difficult to correct. In the beginning you will think it is impossible to do. It does take some practice to get to the point where you make a smooth lump free latex mold, but before you know it you will be slapping rubber on like a pro. The problem with the large drips and runs is that they can keep the rubber mold from seating onto theback up shell properly, thereby distorting the casting. The world is not going to come to an end if your rubber mold is lumpy so don't get obsessed about it. Just be aware that large drips hanging off your mold is not a good thing and try to avoid it.
Only experience with the product you are using will be your guide . This is the finished patch all filled in on one side. look how it is slanted down slightly ( the mold making term is called " drafted ") so that the backup shell will slide right off.Notice it is higher at the middle of the head and lower at the end of the ear. Compare it to the other undercut ear which has not been filled in yet.

The first coat has dried to a nice even tan color. Now the second coat can be brushed on.

Fill Undercuts

If you seal the wet patch in it will stay mushy because it can't dry. It will wrinkle the mold on the inside ruining every casting you make. Brush al l around the patch until it is dry. You can tell when it is dry by the golden brown color it takes on, like a Thanksgiving turkey when it's done just right
Your brand of latex rubber may not change color as much as mine.

the Page in review:

Rubber is a natural product. It comes from a tree.

only latex is truly rubber

latex rubber is a delicate product and requires special handling and use. It will be damaged by freezing, direct sunlight or petroleum products such as motor oil.

brush on even coats of rubber and let them dry to a tan color before brushing on the next coat.

Fantastico!

more pages will be forthcoming as I get time to put them up.

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Paster Master guide to home business Work at Home pg 3 Starting your own statuary business the Making of a Latex Mold Hey! What the heck is that guy in the kilt doing behind that tree? Tapping Hevea Brasiliensis Originally native to South America,the 50 ft.

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This essay is an account of truly learning to see what is and is not present in these objects.
Edward Bleiberg's essay first appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt at the Pulitzer Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri. The exhibition is based on objects from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
* * *

"Why are the noses broken?" This exhibition and essay grew out of my search for an answer to this simple question, which is one of the most common inquiries I receive from museum visitors about the Brooklyn Museum's extensive Egyptian collection.
EGYPTIAN ART AND THE SUPERNATURAL
The question surprised me at first because I had taken it for granted that Egyptian sculptures were damaged. In fact, a large part of my training in Egyptology was devoted to learning how to imagine what is missing from a statue, trying to see it as if it were still intact. These years spent visualizing the statue's missing features nearly blinded me to the reality of just why most of the works of art in my care came to be damaged. Moreover, the question reminded me that museum visitors, unburdened by the blinders I had acquired through my specialized education, see only what actually remains, and are keenly aware of the gaps left by the damage done to these antiquities.

This essay is therefore an account of truly learning to see what is and is not present in these objects. Its goal is to construct a method for reading the damage in a way that reveals the long history of an Egyptian sculpture beyond its original creation and context, through changing cultures and beliefs. There are, in fact, discoverable patterns to the damage inflicted on images in antiquity, and these reflect specific political, religious, personal, and even criminal motivations. These patterns help us establish the date when the damage occurred and the identities of the perpetrators. Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt examines the mutilation of statues in two periods: the ancient world of the pharaohs; and the Late Antique world that emerged after Egyptians started converting to Christianity, which archaeological evidence indicates first took place as early as the mid-first century CE.
SCULPTURE AS RITUAL EQUIPMENT
Ancient Egyptians were an African people who created a distinctive, stable, and long-lasting civilization in the Nile Valley by at least 4400 BCE. They believed that images - objects representing the human form, rendered in stone, metal, wood, clay, or even wax-could be activated to host a supernatural power. This power could be either divine or the soul of a deceased human who had become divine at death. The occupied image was a meeting point between the supernatural and the terrestrial. It was also a physical body enabling such powers to act in our material world. Without an image, supernatural forces could not intervene in events on earth.

The powers of these images could be activated through rituals, and power could also be deactivated through deliberate damage. Since the activated image was conceived as an earthly body for a supernatural being, the power invested in it could be impaired by striking and damaging specific body parts. Also frequently targeted were royal or divine symbols: harming the inscription and symbols that identified the deity or the individual cut off the source of the image's power by disassociating it from that specific deity or person. We refer to this type of intentional damage as iconoclasm.

In the ancient Egyptian language, the words for "sculpture" and "sculptor" emphasize that images are alive. They come to life through ritual: the word for "sculpture" means literally, "a thing that is caused to live," while a sculptor is "one who brings (it) to life."
ANXIETY OVER THREATS TO STATUES AND SCULPTURE
In the Ptolemaic period (323-31 BCE), a group of inscriptions carved on the walls of temples describes the way Egyptian gods can occupy an image and thus make it live. At the Dendera Temple, for example, an inscription states that the goddess Hathor "... flies down from the sky/to enter the Horizon of her Soul [i.e., her temple] on earth,/she flies down into her body, she joins with her form." ² This text describes Hathor's essence joining with a three-dimensional representation of herself. Further statements carved on the walls at the Dendera Temple refer to the god Osiris merging with a relief representation of himself: "Osiris ... comes as a spirit ... He sees his mysterious form depicted in its place,/his figured engraved on the wall;/he enters into his mysterious form,/alights on his image." Images in both two and three dimensions can thus act as resting places for divinities and therefore become the site where humans can encounter the deity. The ancient Egyptians believed that this was the original intention of the god Ptah when he created bodies/sculptures of the other gods: according to a Twenty-Fifth Dynasty document (ca. 746-653 BCE), which may be a copy of an earlier text, the god "Ptah ... gave birth to the gods. He made their bodies according to their wishes. Thus the gods entered into their bodies, of every kind of wood, every kind of stone, and every kind of clay." ⁴ In that text, a god's "body" is virtually synonymous with an image carved in wood or stone or modeled in clay. There is scarcely any difference in the ancient mind, in this context, between images created by sculptors and the living bodies of the gods.

Once the deity has occupied it, the sculpture or relief containing the god becomes a piece of equipment for conducting the essential rituals of offering and worship. The rituals performed with images center specifically on offering and receiving food, drink, clothing, and other necessities. Deceased kings and deceased humans were able to make such offerings to the gods in the afterlife by means of images placed in temples for that purpose. When a statue or image is disabled, it is sometimes clear that it is this particular purpose of the image that has been attacked. For example, statues whose role is to embody the act of making offerings are often damaged on the left hand and arm, because Egyptian custom was to offer with the left hand. Statues that, in contrast, receive offerings are damaged on the right arm and hand, since customarily the right hand was used to receive an offering: a damaged right arm and hand make it impossible to take the food from a represented offering table. Sometimes a very zealous perpetrator might damage both sides of the statue. But when damage is limited to only one side, the pattern of right versus left holds true, making the purpose of the damage apparent.

The Egyptologist Robert K. Ritner has documented the continuous history of the ancient Egyptian concern that statues of individuals could be damaged. He quotes numerous ancient Egyptian texts expressing this uneasiness about statues located in both temples and tombs.

Regarding temples, for example, a First Intermediate Period (ca. 2130-1980 BCE) royal decree that the king made on behalf of his vizier expresses his anxiety about possible damage to statues placed by individuals in a temple:

As for anyone in this entire land who may do an injurious or evil thing to your statues, offering slabs, chapels, woodwork, or monuments which are in any temple precincts or in any temples, My Majesty does not permit that their property nor that of their fathers remain with them, nor that they join the spirits in the necropolis, nor that they remain among the living ...

In this decree, anyone who damages statues placed in the temple by the king's vizier will lose his own property and any inheritance he might have and is barred from proper burial, and thus continued life, after his execution. The severity of the punishment dictated by the king suggests that alarm at the possibility of damage to images reached to the highest level of society.

Attacks against tombs were equally serious and feared. A man named Wersu of Coptos, who lived during the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1539-1295 BCE), recorded a threat against anyone who would damage his tomb statue with the following text:
DAMAGE AS A STRATEGY AGAINST ENEMIES

As for anyone who will attack my corpse in the necropolis, who will remove my statue from my tomb, [the sun-god] Re hates him. He shall have no water from the altar of [the god] Osiris, he shall not transmit his property to his children forever.

An attack on a tomb was just as serious as an attack on statues in a temple, and the punishments were as harsh. Here Wersu curses the perpetrator with the impending hatred of the sun-god. Moreover, the guilty one will be deprived of life-sustaining water if he arrives in the kingdom of Osiris, the land of the dead. Finally, his children will be cut off from inheriting his property. Anyone who damages a statue is cursed in both this world and the next.
WHERE TO DAMAGE A STATUE
Egyptologist Betsy Bryan has established that damaging a mummy as a means of attacking a person in the next world started in Egypt at the very beginning of its history, during the Pre-Dynastic period (ca. 4000-3000 BCE). This action was in fact analogous to the attacks on statues and reliefs that would occur in the historical period of Egyptian history, once this sculptural type of ritual equipment was invented in the subsequent Early Dynastic period (ca. 3000-2675 BCE).

In every era of the following three thousand years of ancient Egyptian history, there is good evidence that the practice of damaging images of the human form - as either protection from, or an attack on, perceived enemies - remained common. As late as the Roman period, the Greek historian Plutarch could describe the mutilation of the body of the god Osiris by his brother Seth as the ultimate way to disempower an Egyptian god. Similar attacks on images continued into the Late Antique world of Christian Egypt, sometimes even imitating Seth's attack on Osiris. Attacking a human image was a deeply entrenched ancient Egyptian method for dealing with an enemy.

The details of how such attacks were made are revealed in a Pharaonic text called the Amduat, which includes the ritual for actions against enemies during the sun-god Re's night journey through the sky of the netherworld. As Ritner relates, during this ritual, images of the enemy were first created and then burned, decapitated, dismembered, inverted (with the base above the head), and buried. There is a clear reflection of this ritual in the actions that obviously befell tomb and temple statues both when they were perceived as an enemy during the Pharaonic period and when all religious equipment used in the indigenous polytheistic religion of Egypt had come to be considered demonic.

The specifics of attacking various body parts are to some extent revealed in the remarks made in the Hebrew Psalms and the Book of Jeremiah about "idols." The Psalmist's denials of the powers of the idol amount to a partial catalogue of what the Egyptians believed their ritual images could actually do. The Psalmist states that the idols of the nations "have mouths, but they speak not, eyes have they, but they see not, they have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths." ¹³ The Egyptians did in fact believe that their images could speak, see, hear, and breathe.

The prophet Jeremiah, who preached to the Jews living in southern Egypt during the seventh century BCE, expanded the catalogue of Egyptian beliefs:
PATTERNS OF DAMAGE: POLITICS AND RELIGION

Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.

The Egyptians did indeed believe that a tree shaped into an image by a craftsman could speak and walk. The damage done to Egyptian statues is precisely meant to take away their power to see, hear, breathe, speak, and walk.

Some politically and religiously motivated damage clearly befell statues during the Pharaonic period. Two of the most notable examples occurred during the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1539-1295 BCE) and following the reigns of Hatshepsut (1478-1458 BCE); and Akhenaten (1352-1336 BCE).

In the present day, Hatshepsut is regarded as the first woman who served Egypt as king. She married Thutmose II, whose early death led her to ascend to the throne jointly with her husband's nine-year-old son, Thutmose III (who had been born to a "secondary wife"). They ruled together while he was a minor, and monuments made at this time show them as either equal in power or with Hatshepsut as the senior partner. After Hatshepsut's death, however, Thutmose III wanted to designate his own son, Amunhotep II, to be his successor as king, though neither Thutmose III nor his son had a direct biological connection to Hatshepsut. Thutmose III therefore ordered the erasure of Hatshepsut's name from her monuments and re-inscribed them with names from his male lineage through his father, to present a legitimate male line of succession. He attacked her statues and changed the names on her buildings from Hatshepsut to Thutmose.

The results can be seen in one head of Hatshepsut in the Brooklyn Museum's collection. This royal head was part of a sphinx. Thutmose's men followed a common pattern of mutilating her image by concentrating on royal symbols and significant body parts: the damage to the uraeus-cobra on the king's forehead, which previously had protected her from her enemies, has removed that safeguard; the destruction of part of the striped nemes-headdress and the removal of the royal beard at the chin eliminated symbols of royal legitimacy; the damage to the nose prevented the king's spirit within from breathing; and, finally, the head has been severed from the body, also an effective way of deactivating the statue.

The mid-fourteenth century BCE was a time of multiple iconoclasms. Perhaps the most remarkable was that surrounding the Amarna period and the rule of Akhenaten, with its religious upheaval. When Amunhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten (about 1352 BCE) he proclaimed that the Aten was the sole god whom Egyptians should worship, establishing a kind of proto-monotheism while still believing that other gods existed. Worship of the former chief god of the pantheon, Amun, was suspended, and his name was removed from many monuments. But after Akhenaten died (about 1336 BCE), his son Tutankhamun ended the cult of the Aten and reinstated the worship of Amun. Monuments naming Akhenaten and the god Aten were then attacked and temples to the Aten were destroyed.

During Akhenaten's reign, his men removed the name of Amun from many monuments. A fragment of a stela for a man named Amunemhet may have been damaged because of the name of the owner, which means "Amun is the foremost." It had been made about 70 to 130 years before Akhenaten banned the worship of Amun. The stela bears a representation of an offering table laid with offerings, male and female figures who make the offerings-and above them, five columns where a hieroglyphic text has been purposely removed. Enough hieroglyphic traces remain to suggest that it contained the names and titles of officials of the temple of Amun.

The end of the Amarna Period is poorly documented, precisely because of the extensive iconoclasm that occurred after Tutankhamun restored the cult of Amun and, moreover, abandoned Akhenaten's capital at Tell el-Amarna for the traditional capitals at Thebes and Memphis. The extensive harm to monuments of Akhenaten's reign obscures the exact relationships among Akhenaten's successors: his queen, Nefertiti; his daughter, Meritaten; his immediate successor, Neferneferuaten; the subsequent king, Smenkare; and, finally, Tutankhamun. The relationships among these individuals, as well as their true identities, remain the subject of scholarly debate. Nevertheless, it now seems clear that Akhenaten's biological son, Tutankhamun, changed his name from Tutankhaten, at the age of nine; seemingly simultaneously, he returned the country to traditional Egyptian religion. It was Tutankhamun's successors, however, including Ay (1322-1319 BCE) and especially Horemheb (1319-1292 BCE), who seem to be responsible for the attempt to completely eliminate the memory of Akhenaten and his sole god, the Aten.

Akhenaten's tomb in Tell-el Amarna was largely destroyed, along with almost everything it contained. He had commissioned hundreds of shabties for his tomb. These figurines were included in a burial in order to do work for the deceased in the next world. Akhenaten's surviving shabties show that they were taken apart, removing heads from bodies and bodies from feet. The individual inscriptions that identify the king were also partially damaged.

Horemheb was probably responsible for the initial demolition of Akhenaten's temples to the Aten. Many of the blocks from the Aten temples discovered in modern times had been used as fill inside the pylons (the monumental gateways of temples), that Horemheb constructed in Karnak. Another Aten temple, located at Hermopolis Magna, not far from Amarna, was destroyed, and its blocks were found in the foundation of a temple built by Ramesses II.

One finely carved relief from this group depicts Akhenaten and his daughter offering a bouquet to the god Aten. It also reveals the range of strategies available to those who wanted to disable this image's power and thus restore the primacy of the god Amun: the king's bouquet was damaged, and the Aten was removed, to prevent the god from receiving an offering; the king's face and crown were destroyed, as were the individual cartouches on his body that contained his name, depriving him of royal legitimacy (fig. 12); and the hieroglyphs behind the king's head that described this scene were removed. At the same time, though, the minor figure here, the princess, was left intact. All this demonstrates a common pattern in damaged royal scenes, wherein minor figures remained untouched while the king's figure was disabled. The detailed attention to removing so many instances of the Aten's name suggests that the god's power had to be reduced before Horemheb's men were willing to dismantle the temple building itself.
DAMAGE TO ROYAL SYMBOLS AND NOSES
In addition to this practice, figures other than the king and the Aten were damaged when they constituted independent works. A red quartzite head in the Brooklyn Museum's collection dis- plays the downturned mouth of Queen Tiye, Akhenaten's mother. The eyes of Queen Tiye were originally inlaid in another type of stone or in a precious metal that has now disappeared; the nose was purposely damaged, and there is chipping on the cheeks and the back of the head. Images of the queen were made to receive offerings: thus, the specific damage to this head of Queen Tiye rendered her unable to either recognize offerings by sight or to breathe, and thus stay alive.

This sculpted head also demonstrates a particular kind of material vulnerability. It was part of a composite statue made of a number of other stone pieces, both for the body and the crown. Composite statues like this one were especially prone to damage because they were held together with dowels and could be easily disassembled.
DECAPITATION
Royal symbols identified the figure of a king and conferred legitimacy. They remain clear in Ptolemy II, a relatively intact work. It preserves the base of the uraeus-cobra centered above the forehead, though the head of the cobra is missing; and the striped nemes-headdress is complete except for the edges of the nemes. Both of these still-evident features were already ancient symbols of the legitimate king, and in most periods of Egyptian history could be worn only by kings. Moreover, in this bust all of the facial features are preserved.

This intact bust of a king stands in sharp contrast to the damaged head of Nectanebo I and helps us to understand what happened to it. In Nectanebo I, the uraeus's head has been removed by multiple strikes of the chisel; traces of the tail of the snake trail back along the center of the head, but the protective value of the uraeus has been negated. Multiple blows with a chisel have also removed large sections of the nemes-headdress on both the right and left sides. And the last of the royal symbols, the royal beard, has been removed from the chin. Elements of the king's head and face were also strategically removed: damage to sections of the head, on both right and left, eradicated the ears and nemes, and the nose was also carefully removed. The loss of these physical characteristics essentially "killed" the image and prevented it from hearing prayers.

Much can be learned by comparing how two similar statues have been differently damaged. Amunhotep (Son of Nebiry) and Djehuti are represented as literate noblemen; each holds a papyrus scroll in his lap as he sits on the ground. On each statue, incised lines on the abdomen represent rolls of fat that are emblematic of well-fed wealth. Both statues were made in the earlier part of the Eighteenth Dynasty and were probably quite similar when they first were complete.
NOSES ON SARCOPHAGI
Yet a closer examination of the differences in their damage reveals the choices iconoclasts made. Amunhotep's head is intact, but his nose has been removed. In addition, his left shoulder, the front and back of the inner side of his arm, and the area under his forearm were damaged in antiquity (and restored in modern times). Djehuti, in contrast, no longer has a head at all. His left wrist and thumb were broken into six pieces in antiquity (and are now restored for exhibition). But most of his arm is intact.

Somewhat surprisingly, the difference between keeping or losing a head and/or a left arm might be explained by the difference in hairstyle between the two statues. Amunhotep's long, thick hair, enveloping his neck and extending over the upper part of his shoulders, reinforced his neck and made it more difficult to remove his head. Djehuti's short hair did not extend around his neck and down his back; iconoclasts therefore had much less work to do to when they removed Djehuti's head. Because Amunhotep kept his head, his left arm was more thoroughly attacked than was Djehuti's left arm.

A sarcophagus protects the mummy in the tomb, while the mummy itself acts as a resting place for the ba and the ka, two elements of the ancient Egyptian soul. Thus a sarcophagus, like a statue, is a place where the supernatural inhabits a man-made creation and manifests itself on earth.

A close examination of the Sarcophagus Lid for Pa-di-Inpu reveals a discoloration on the mostly intact nose. The discoloration is perhaps a remnant of rituals that treated the nose as essential in re-creating life after death: incense placed at the nose allowed the breath of life to enter the soul of the deceased. Therefore, when tomb robbers destroyed a tomb and the sarcophagus contained within it, damaging the nose was a particularly important means of evading punishment. As we see in Face and Shoulder from an Anthropoid Sarcophagus, for example, robbers feared the revenge of the deceased as much as they feared the law on earth, and these criminals protected themselves by disabling the sarcophagus that housed the soul of the wronged tomb owner. In this damaged fragment of a sarcophagus, even a piece of the face has been attacked to make the nose ineffective.

The reasons for breaking the nose become even clearer in a consideration of statues with multiple subsidiary figures. In such cases, only the main figure is attacked, while offering bearers or priests are left intact. Superintendent of the Granary, Irukaptah portrays the deceased sitting on his block-like chair. The entire figure is notably intact except for the careful chiseling away of the nose. On his chair are represented a total of four offering bearers, with two females on the back of the block and two males at his right side; there are also two soul-priests, who would perform the ritual for Irukaptah, represented on his left side of the chair. All six figures are intact; there is no damage to them at all. The tomb robbers feared only the revenge of the tomb owner himself, not the subsidiary figures.

There is a second statue of Irukaptah in the exhibition. Its identifying inscription was never added, but early nineteenth-century documentation suggests that it, too, came from the tomb of Irukaptah. This time he stands, in the traditional pose, with left foot forward and hands at his sides. In this second statue he is again accompanied by subsidiary figures. Here he is presented as the head of a household, with his wife and his son, who are shown at a reduced scale, which is typical of such family portraits. The statue would have represented the entire family buried in the tomb.
REMOVING HANDS AND ARMS
Irukaptah's nose has been removed with a chisel, and overall his figure is somewhat battered and pitted. Yet his wife and son are completely intact. Here again, the main figure is deactivated while the subsidiary figures remain. The intention in such an instance was to prevent only the tomb owner from acting in this world.

The particular historical motivations for damaging the sarcophagus and these two statues remain unclear, because we lack the important evidence of inscriptions. The sarcophagus is too fragmentary to reveal its inscription, while neither statue is inscribed; the name of the statues is known only from the tomb where they were discovered. Without inscriptions, we cannot evaluate possible motives, or even date the damage to either the Pharaonic or Late Antique era. These noses could have been broken to prevent the tomb owner's revenge against personal enemies in his own era, or against criminal tomb robbers, then or later on; or broken by Christian monks, to disable pre-Christian supernatural forces from acting in the tomb.

The green siltstone or greywacke Overseer of Weavers, Min is a typical temple statue type and is largely intact. Donors placed block statues in temple courtyards to allow a part of the soul called the ba to have a resting place during rituals. Individuals could then continue to participate in worshipping the god even after death. This mostly complete block statue helps a viewer envision what is missing from Minmose.

Block statues represent the donor crouching on the ground with a cloak entirely enveloping the body. Only the hands emerge from the sleeves of the garment. In Min's case, a single column of inscription runs down the front, recording his name and the title "Overseer of Weavers." There is minor damage to his nose, and part of the front section of the base is broken, rendering one-half of the line of inscription unreadable. Yet Min's name is repeated, undamaged, on the front of the base, though there is damage to the other side where his titles would have been written.

Minmose sits on an oblong base and against an inscribed back pillar. He holds an image of the goddess Hathor. The divine image likely supported a sistrum, a musical instrument that is a common offering to this goddess. Inscriptions on the back pillar, around the entire body, and on the shoulders are all intact, preserving his name in several places. Yet, Minmose's head, arms, and one knee are missing.

The preservation of the hieroglyphic writing of the names suggests that Min and Minmose - as identifiable individuals - were not the targets of the attacks made on these statues. Damage to the nose in one, and the missing arm and head of the other, both suggest actions by Christian monks, who were more interested in deactivating statues in general, to prevent the perceived demonic forces of polytheism from being active in the world.

Other evidence of a specific interest in removing the arms that offer to an Egyptian god is found in the sculptures of Sety, Pawerem, and Khaemhat. All three of these individuals are represented kneeling. In Egyptian art, those who kneel are understood to be making an offering or praying to a deity. Pawerem holds an image of the goddess Bastet, suggesting that he kneels before her and offers an image to her. Sety raises his hands with the palms oriented toward the god, in a gesture of prayer; the inscription on his kilt explains that he is praying to the sun-god. Khaemhat kneels holding a stela that also contains a prayer to the sun-god.

All three statues have been disabled, but through different means, perhaps as a by-product of the way each type of stone influences the appearance of a damaged statue. Pawerem was carved from a hard, fine-grained stone, made of basalt, which is sedimentary. The blow that removed the head was made to his left side at the base of the neck. It sheared off the stone from left to right and removed his right shoulder, the top of his right arm, and the top of the back pillar. The blow left a relatively smooth surface on the hard stone. Though the top of the back pillar was damaged, there was no interference with the hieroglyphs themselves, and thus the name is still legible.

The image of Sety is carved in limestone, which is relatively soft. There is minor chipping on the nose, right eye, and brow, with less significant damage to his left and to the right corners of the base. His left arm has been removed with a chisel, leaving a series of marks on the soft stone that appear uneven in the break, especially compared to the breaks at Pawerem's arms. Because his left arm is removed, Sety's prayer cannot reach the god.
DAMAGE BY EARLY CHRISTIANS
Khaemhat's statue was carved from grey tonalite, a hard, igneous stone. His head and neck and the front of the plinth are missing. Part of the base has broken off and is now a separate fragment. There are small chips and, more significantly, large cracks throughout the figure. Scientific analysis concludes that cracks result from the natural degradation due to water circulation during burial. Iron compounds, which are a natural part of this stone, once wet, have expanded, causing the cracks. This suggests that the statue was perhaps the victim of drowning, which was undertaken in order to disable it.

By now it should be clear that sculptures from temples were regularly disabled in a consistent pattern of damage to the head, nose, or arm. When a statue exhibits this type of damage but the name of the individual is preserved, two conclusions can be made about the motives and identities of those who committed these acts of iconoclasm. First, the preservation of the individual's name shows that the damage was not directed at the human individual. The reason behind the damage was thus not private animosity or the tomb robber's fear of the tomb owner's revenge. Second, the destruction was likely perpetrated during a time that hieroglyphic writing was no longer understood. Thus it is likely that the violence committed against a statue was anti-polytheistic in motivation and also intended to benefit early Christians.

Christians of the Late Antique period felt themselves to be standing at the border between the ancient polytheistic world and their new Christian world. But even committed Christians feared the old gods. As late as the eighth century CE, a guidebook to the ancient monuments of Constantinople warned, "take care when you look at old statues, especially pagan ones."
DAMAGE TO STATUES DURING MUSLIM RULE
As Troels Myrup Kristensen has argued, early Christian texts that describe iconoclasm are designed to demonstrate the helplessness of the polytheistic gods in the face of Christian monks, who were determined to end non-Christian power on earth. In these texts, damage to statues is a show of force performed for an audience of polytheists. Once the polytheists witnessed the demonstration of Christian power, they might convert to Christianity, establish a church on the spot, or exorcise a demon, or commit to martyrdom in the Christian cause. This attitude is well summarized in a chant of Coptic pilgrims: "And those shameful things,/demons and idols/and defiled things made with hands/in the land of the Egyptians,/our good Savior trampled down/altogether/and set up in their place/a holy pillar."

Yet total destruction of a statue was regarded as less efficacious than partial damage, as many examples cited here show. In his late fourth- and early fifth-century CE preaching, Saint Augustine recommended partial breakage of polytheistic statues, saying, "Brethren, I deem it more shameful for Hercules to have his beard shaved than to have his head taken off." ¹⁸ In this case, shaving Hercules's beard was thought to show that his statue was powerless in the face of Christianity. The presence of damaged statues of Greek or Egyptian gods was understood to definitively demonstrate the power of Christianity and the helplessness of the gods of earlier polytheistic religions. Thus, Christian monks in Egypt damaged the working parts of temple and tomb statues but left them in a place, where former polytheists could be continually reminded that their old religion was now defunct. Christianity had triumphed.

Arab Muslims conquered Egypt in the seventh century. Though it would take more than a thousand years to achieve a Muslim majority in Egypt, Muslim control was well established by 642 CE. The Muslims who settled in Egypt and the descendants of the ancient Egyptians still living there displayed a different attitude toward the polytheistic past than that expressed by Christians.

First, Muslim philosophers and historians admired the accomplishments of the ancients (though they saw the ruined state of pharaonic monuments as a testament to human frailty without the "true" god).
CONCLUSION
Second, Muslim inhabitants of Egypt showed less concern with the original purpose of Egyptian statues than had Christians. As a result, damage committed to ancient statues during the era of Muslim occupation can be distinguished from that perpetrated in earlier periods. The Muslim inhabitants of Egypt were interested in using for new construction the abundance of already quarried stone available in the form of Egyptian statues. Sculptures were reduced to cubic building blocks, as was the case with the Crown Prince Khaemwaset. The figure above the waist was removed, reducing the whole to a rectangular block with intentionally made chisel marks visible on the waist. The edges are worn and abraded, and the surface is chipped and pitted. The inscription shows no sign that particular words or the prince's name were attacked. Given the rectangular shape of what remains, scholars have suggested that the intention here was to reuse the granite, rather than an attempt to control the image's power.

During the medieval period in Egypt, many antiquities were reused in building projects. At this time, ancient statues were regarded as a valuable piece of stone.

Answering the question of why the nose is broken on any particular Egyptian statue, relief, or sarcophagus mostly depends on two key factors: the condition of the inscription, and the original location and purpose of the statue. Additional breakage to other parts of the body or to symbols is also informative.

Iconoclasm on a grand scale - such as the destruction of royal imagery following the reign of Hatshepsut and during and after the reign of Akhenaten - was primarily political in motive. Hatshepsut's reign presented a problem for the legiti- macy of Thutmose III's chosen successor; and Thutmose solved this problem by eliminating a significant portion of the imagistic and inscribed memory of Hatshepsut. Akhenaten's religious revolution presented a large-scale problem for his successors, who restored the worship of the god Amun; the destruction of Akhenaten's monuments was therefore thorough and effective.

The condition of an inscription is revealing when it is clear whether the name itself was the primary target of the destruction. Damage to the name strongly suggests that the attack took place during the Pharaonic period when hieroglyphic writing was still understood. The reasons for damage in that period are likely to have been personal animosity toward the one represented in the image or, when a criminal violates a tomb, a desire to evade a deceased person's revenge.

Additional damage to other body parts, especially the arms or feet, when combined with knowledge of the image's original location and purpose, also can reveal the date and motivation of what was done. Broken noses "kill" the statue, while broken arms prevent it from giving or receiving an offering. If the name is intact on such a statue, there is a strong likelihood that the statue was damaged in the Late Antique period at a time when Christians still knew how these statues were intended to function. Since early Christians regarded polytheistic religion as demonic and wanted to prevent its practice, the mutilation of statues was a part of an attempt to destroy the previous religion and advance the new Christian faith.

Those actions can be distinguished from the reduction of statues, which were likely intended to be reused as building blocks. With the passage of time, the original purposes of the statues and the way they functioned was less clearly understood. After the seventh century CE, ancient statues became, to some extent, a source of high-quality stone that could be put to other purposes. Ultimately, religious and political conflict as a source of damage to ancient statues gave way to the everyday practicalities of recycling existing stone for new construction.

Nevertheless, the study of ancient Egyptian iconoclasm reveals long-lasting attitudes toward the nature of the art the Egyptians made. The idea of human images as resting places for supernatural beings was essential to ancient Egyptian cultural understanding and survived in altered form into the Christian era. Egyptian art's importance in society is revealed by the compulsion to destroy it in recognizable patterns.

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Why Are the Noses Broken on Egyptian Statues?

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This essay is an account of truly learning to see what is and is not present in these objects. Edward Bleiberg's essay first appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt at the Pulitzer Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Cement
I used to use high quality plaster for all my modelling, but later found out that the highest quality plaster is more or less a mixture of cheap plaster and cement. Cement is the binder in concrete without the rocks and you can find it at most lumber yards. I've experimented with this and found that 3 parts plaster of paris mixed with 2 parts cement will have almost the same durability as dental stone, but costs only as much as plaster of paris.

Plaster of paris and cement are about the same price, you just have to buy twice as much for twice the price- even this is usually cheaper than going straight for the quality products. So long as you don't put in too much cement (no more than 2 fifths for walls, etc... and about a quarter for detailed work) it will have the same quality as dental stone.

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My favorite casting products are Dental Stones shown on the Dental Stone page. I believe these are the best and most durable casting materials to use for your projects.

However, there are many other less expensive products available so I've compiled this list of product reviews from my customers. Please note that I have not tested these out personally, so I can't guarantee that the reviews are accurate. Also, the information on each product may be incomplete because these reviews were given to me by customers from the message board on my web site. Many of the reviews have been edited for space.

If you want to purchase some of these products listed below, it's best to go to your favorite search engine and type in the name of the product you want. Several companies should be listed who carry these products. I would also suggest looking at GypsumSolutions.com. They are a wonderful resource for finding the properties of different kinds of plasters and where stores are that you can purchase them.

If you have information on a product that you like, please e-mail me at bruce@hirstarts.com. so I can add it to the list shown here. The products listed below are in alphabetical order.
Cement
I used to use high quality plaster for all my modelling, but later found out that the highest quality plaster is more or less a mixture of cheap plaster and cement. Cement is the binder in concrete without the rocks and you can find it at most lumber yards. I've experimented with this and found that 3 parts plaster of paris mixed with 2 parts cement will have almost the same durability as dental stone, but costs only as much as plaster of paris.
Plaster of paris and cement are about the same price, you just have to buy twice as much for twice the price- even this is usually cheaper than going straight for the quality products. So long as you don't put in too much cement (no more than 2 fifths for walls, etc... and about a quarter for detailed work) it will have the same quality as dental stone. -Toomy
(edited by Bruce Hirst)
Denstone
Finally getting back to model building and wanted to try Denstone, 50lbs for $33.57. I love it. I'm never going back to any other material. I'm mixing it thinner than recommended on the net (about 150ml to 300g vs. 60ml to 300g) and it's setting well. Still having a few bubble problems, but that's due to my pouring technique and not the plaster. Overall, HIGHLY recommended, and you can't complain about free shipping for a 50lb box! -Eric I too have tried the Denstone Dental Plaster and will never go back to PoP or Hydrocal. This stuff is great!!. It does mix thinner than plaster but has fewer air bubbles and is much stronger. The sales rep who I purchased the product from even threw in a vibrating table for free!!!. I use the vibrating table after I pour the plaster and Bruce's Blocks come out bubble free. Dental plaster is definitely the way to go if you can get it. -Brian I just picked up my second 50 lb. box of DenStone. It on has about half the strength of Die-Keen (9,000 psi vs 18,000 psi), but it only cost me $29.50. It's plenty strong for my tastes. -Tim I too am using Denstone and I have been happy with it. (Keep in mind that I have been doing this for only one day!) I paid $20 for a 25 lb. box. My only complaint is that it doesn't seem hard enough, I think I will try the Die Keen next time. ($38.00 at my local dental supply store.) -JerekMace Die Stone
I have been absolutely thrilled with the die stone from orthocast.com. I can mix and pour 3 batches. By that time, the first is ready to be scraped. Buy the time they are all scraped (and pour the scraped plaster into other molds) the first pieces are ready to be demoulded. Once all pieces are demoulded, I start mixing and pouring again. I tend to mix it thick, I seem to get better results that way. -Llama I have to agree with Llama about the Die Stone. I read about his initial recommendation and ordered 50 lbs last week. The company was incredibly friendly and actually knew what I wanted ("your going to build castles, right?"). It mixes very well and is very very strong. Bruces instructions for Dental Plaster (Die Keen) work perfectly for Die Stone. -Tony Durhams Rock Hard Water Putty
Having worked with Durham's Water Putty often, I can say the stuff is great. VERY dense, strong enough to drill, but best used with small pieces. Large pieces are a bit more brittle and and will shatter if dropped. Great stuff for making bricks though. -Bryan I recently went to Home Depot to see what type of alternatives they had. Well I picked up this stuff called Durhams Rock Hard Water Putty. On the back it says it can be used for moldings. I figured what the heck, it is only about $4 for 4 pounds. It is a really fine powder that mixes with water like any other plaster. BUT, this stuff is SUPER STRONG. I was really surprised at how strong this stuff is. I just took one of the 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/4 blocks and stuck a knife in it. It took a LOT of pressure to split the block. It is a lot stronger than the plaster and light weight hydrocal I have been using. -Mike You can view the manufacture's website at www.waterputty.com (has some interesting suggestions). It is available at Home Depot for $4.93 (plus tax) for a 4 lb. cylinder or in lesser amounts.
A good casting mixture is noticeably harder than plaster of paris. It takes about three times as long as plaster to set enough to remove it from the mold, but retains significant malleability during that time so it is useful for sculpting as well as casting. When dry it has a peach or cream color similar to light adobe. While the resulting cast is strong, you must still be careful in handling pieces thinner than a 1/4" (they are strong, but can still break whereas anything thicker than 1/2" you will have to apply a good deal of force to break). The substance can be sanded, drilled, or carved with ease.

For casting (after extensive testing) I've found a mixture of 50 mL of warm water (or about 1/4 cup) and 7 1/2 Tablespoons (I use 5 flattened measures of 1 1/2 Tablespoons) stirred for at least 5 minutes (preferably until there are no lumps) performs well and produces sufficient mixture to easily fill the Wizard's Tower mold with some left over for other uses (see below). Mixing does tend to introduce a lot of bubbles, but this doesn't affect the casting if you are careful to tap the mold thoroughly and run a paintbrush along all the mold edges immediately after pouring.

After pouring, the mixture should reach toothpaste consistency after 30 minutes so you can scrape off the excess. After 1 additional hour you can remove the blocks from the mold (you can be rougher the longer you wait for the putty to set). The excess putty may be put to several uses, especially between 30 - 50 minutes after mixing. Once it has reached a toothpaste or thicker consistency, it makes a strong and highly effective mortar for bricks, producing a more natural look than normal gluing. Additionally, for any bricks or pieces that come out concave (you scraped too aggressively) you can fill in the concavity and either flatten it now, or let it dry and sand it down later. Lastly, if any air bubbles marred the cast and you have a light and steady hand, you can make impromptu repairs to it.

Aside from the slowness of the hardening process of this mixture (a fact that does prove useful when using it for other things than casting) I find this product superior in all ways to plaster of paris. Not only does it make excellent casts, but it has a myriad of other uses and makes a really nice mortar or faux rocks and rubble. -Adam
Durhams Water Putty is one of the greatest mixtures available for those that cannot afford more expensive dental products. It is about $5.96 for 4 Pounds of the stuff. Using large red dixie cups, I fill it with the amount of plaster I will need for the casting. Taking another cup, I fill it with water.
The amount of water you should use should be half of the amount of putty you are using, In other words, 1 part water to 2 parts plaster. It should be ready for scraping immediatly, and when the putty starts to turn an orangeish color, They are ready to remove. It runs about forty minutes from mixing to removal.

I am never going back to any plaster or hydrocal product. Be careful about spilling the plaster dust, as it is a pain to get it up without it blowing everywere. For a 4lb container, you get about 10 casts on 2 molds. Flex the cup when the putty is dry and it cracks off with no problems. It takes paint well. -Ants
Note for all: The Durhams Water Putty from Home Depot is now up to $8 for the 4lb container. The cure time for that is 1/2 hour before you can scrape and 1 hour to remove from mold. Now, not only is it just as expensive as some of the better dental stone material, it has the longest cure time of them all.
Extremely hard to sand and if your not careful, youll tear right through standard sandpaper. Sheetrock sanding screen works better but is more expensive as well. Does not take staining well. Paint yes, stain no. If you have the time, money and desire for all your pieces to be super tough, this is the stuff for you. If not, go w/ any of the dental stone products. Personally, I will not use this stuff again. -Sam
While waiting on more Die stone to arrive I decided to try some Rock Hard Water Putty on a whim (seen in aisle of Ace Hardware) after recalling it mentioned. Since it was purchased at an Ace hardware it was a little more then normal price. $4 for 1lb.
Following mixing instructions gave something similar to plaster of paris a little thicker upon inspection. It flowed into mold about the same as PofP but it held air bubbles like honey. For the first time my floor tiles had air bubbles in them. Vibrating for 15 minutes didn't work out the air bubbles.

Once dried overnight I inspected and found the tiles weaker then PofP (???) and they broke under slight thumb pressure. I tried 6 different batches and all turned out the same. For the price and characteristics I would use another product. -Aaron
Hydrocal VS Extra Lightweight Hydrocal
Having mixed both several times now, I have to say that Lightweight Hydrocal is much more difficult to mix. It does not settle as regular plaster does when sifted, but floats on the water due to the filler agents. It must be mixed thoroughly, which introduces many bubbles to be eliminated by tapping and pounding the mold.
Hydrocal sinks to the bottom, forms an island on the water when complete, and if stirred slowly with a coffee stick in a back and forth motion has little to no bubbling to eliminate after a pour.

Lightweight Hydrocal does meet it's claim of half weight. For my comparison, I filled the same mold with first Lightweight Hydrocal and then regular white Hydrocal. I then weighed the two results. The lightweight Hydrocal came in at just under 45 grams for a full cast. The white Hydrocal came in at just under 100 grams. Lightweight wins, hands down.

Overall, I like hydrocal better, and will be using it in the future. It is more than twice as heavy, but easier to mix, and much cheaper (lightweight is about $4 a pound, white is $.70 a pound). Unless weight is your most important factor and you can pay over 5 times as much and tolerate the mixing difficulties, I would go with the standard white Hydrocal. -Ernie Phelps
Hydrostone
Hydrostone is the proprietary name for a gypsum cement product offered by U.S. Gypsum. Other companies offer similiar products. Hydrocal is harder and much finer than standard plasters. This is a good site for details: www.plastermaster.com/usg/index.htm -Andy
Or tryGypsum Solutions -Luke
The recommended mixture for HydroStone is 32% water to product by weight. In my experience though this increased the scraping/drying times significantly when using it in such low quantities as you would for HirstArts molds.

I found 100grams water to 250grams HydroStone works just fine and gives a 5-6 minute scraping time and 25 minute demold time. It is thin enough to flow into even some of the smaller pieces like on Mold #59 and the thin walled pieces like on Mold #85. Though I do use a vibration table for the smaller pieces, I do not for larger pieces like Mold #70 and #204.

So far I have had little to no issues with air bubbles. The pieces that come out of the mold are strong enough that I haven't had much issue with fractures during the demolding process. After about 2-3 hours in a dehydrator set to 122F the pieces are completely dry and have a fine stone-like finish.

I was able to purchase HydroStone from a local storefront here in the DFW area called Brick In The Yard Mold Supply. They have an online store as well. -Matt
Permastone
Well, I think I've found my favorite casting material... Permastone. Allow me to elaborate:
1.) Material - Permastone is an extremely fine powder in a bright white color. The stuff comes in a canister which I could not open easily, however, I cut a small square just underneath the lid for easy "squeeze" dispensing.

2.) Mixing - Here's where this stuff really shines. The powder dissolves almost immediately upon hitting the water all the way to the saturation point. When you are done with the mixing, you are left with a heavy mixture that has little surface tension. When pouring it, the sediment settles quickly and you will immediately see how much water separation you will have on top of the mold. This is good for estimating how high above the mold to pour an excess amount of material.

3.) Casting - I let the Permastone set for five minutes and then scraped the top of the mold. The Permastone did not compress as I scraped, like Hydrocoal and plaster did. When I say compress I mean that when the edge of the blade goes over the top of the mold you don't feel that backpressure on the blade that makes you feel like the holes in the mold have a lot of air or material in them, which always made me think that the mold was not fully set or formed. I could fully remove the bricks 30 minutes later, and they came out without any residue at all. Permastone does create air bubbles, but they are very, very small and practically invisible and sometimes, they actually enhance the look of the brick. (Gives it a weather-pitted look.). None of the air bubbles caused deformation of any of the blocks, which happened often with Plaster, Hydrocoal, and Water Putty.

4.) Curing - Permastone cures to a bright white, porcelain like object. It is hard as a rock and I tested the strength by repeatedly dropping one on my workbench from 4 feet. No chipping, even when dropped on a corner. To separate the blocks in the Dragon's Inn mold, I had to score the groove about 10 times with the back of an X-acto blade, then simply break it along the edge. Clean break, no crumbling. Once broken, the inside of the cured block can easily be shaved down with the back of a blade or heavy grit sandpaper. When there is no break, shaping the block will take a bit more effort with sandpaper, but still achieves a good finish.

5.) The con... Price. I found Permastone a bit pricey at 6.50 for 2 pounds at a craft store. It took about 3.5 pounds to finish just the Wizard's Tower. Considering you can get other casting materials for much cheaper, I'm not sure this is an exceptional value. BUT, If you factor in the frustration of working with other materials, it just may be worth the price. I will say that except for my learning curve with Permastone, once I got the mix down I did not have one bad cast afterwards. I would definitely recommend Permastone for wargaming structures due to its extreme durability and good looks. -Kizarvex
Por-A-Kast
I have been using polyurethane resins like Por-A-Kast for years with great success. Por-A-Kast is a liquid urethane casting materia that comes in two parts, a polymer and a curative, both of which look somewhat like vegetable oil (although one is a slightly darker amber color).
The two parts are measured at equal volumes and quickly cure at room temperature to a rigid white or ivory solid. I usually allow about 10 minutes cure time before removing parts from the mold and curing is complete after 30 minutes. That means I can cast blocks three times faster than when using plaster!

The cured resin can be tooled, turned, drilled, ground, sanded, pigmented, stained, and filled. The tensile strength is higher than regular plaster, not as high as dental plaster, but cured resin is flexible and therefore good for more delicate casts.

I have excellent results gluing resin parts together with a gap-filling CA glue like Zap-A-Gap. Por-A-Kast is the original product, cures to an ivory color, and gels slightly faster than Por-A-Kast II, which cures to a stark white color. Both cost about $65 for a two-gallon kit and are available from Bare Metal Foil Co. -Dave
Tufstone
I just got a 50lb bag of Tufstone from Douglas and Sturgess Art Supplies at www.artstuf.com. Compared to normal plaster of paris: Tufstone is a finer grain and casts much better detail. Tufstone doesn't bubble as much and dries much harder.
The service from D&S was top notch. I ordered the bag on Monday morning, and it arrived at my place (outside Seattle - they're in San Francisco) on Thursday. However, due to the weight, shipping was nearly the cost of the product: $17 on a $22 order. Overall, I like it MUCH better than PofP and will be using it on everything from now on. -Eric
I happen to live in San Francisco, and just recently bought some Tufstone from Douglas & Sturgess (their shop is on my way to work). I fully agree with you: Tufstone is the finest grained, low bubbled, and hardest type of plaster I have tried. Once you try it, you'll won't use anything else.
By the way, those of you who plan to ship their finished castings, I definitely recommend using Tufstone or similar material. -YDune
I am very familiar with Douglas and Sturgess from my vacuum forming days and using Ultracal 30 for making our Stormtrooper molds. After trying StrongCast Plaster from Michaels ($4.50 or so for a 2 pound tub) I wanted to use something more economical and stronger. After researching shipping costs of other products I decided to try TufStone as D&S is less than an hour drive from me. Their staff were top notch (as always) and very helpful.
After several castings I had only one bad tile and that was because I didnt mix it enough (lumpy batch). It is very strong and I can see the reinforcing fibers when I scrape the molds! So far after 20+ batches I only had two pieces that werent perfect.-Tracy
Ultracal 30
Here is a phone number for the USG (United States Gypsum) distributor # 1-800-487-4431.
I was able to purchase 100lbs of Ultracal 30 for about $17.60. It sets fast (when mixed right), is VERY strong, and does not chip like Plaster Of Paris. The only thing is water puddles form when the Ultracal sets, so before you scrape be sure to dabb that off with a paper towel. It also is a little heavier too, but it is a good trade-off. I mix mine to about the consistancy of thickish pancake batter. Any thicker and it sets up in my cup, any thinner and when you dabb the water off, you may end up with a short block. -Prepaid Sanity
Vatican Art Stone
It's very intersting stuff. It has an aggregate in it that will add a luster to the dried cast if you polish it with very fine grit sandpaper or steel wool. The stone is pretty dense and the aggregate takes a little getting used to. Just mixing the stuff in your normal disposable plastic cup is quite noisy (don't do it when your significant other is watching Tv).
After figuring out that you should let the stuff sit for 2 or 3 minutes after combining the plaster and water (like the directions said) the casts came out much more air-bubble free. It's not particularly strong stuff - I could still break pieces with my hands without working too hard at it (I was mixing it pretty thin because I wanted to make sure that I didn't run out before I had enough stuff cast to do a few projects), but it removes painting from the process and solves the "chipped structure shows white" problem with plaster. The stuff will chip, but it'll be the same color on the inside and won't be as noticeable.

It comes in a variety of colors: grey-green, black, brown, white, & terra-cotta. It was $22 / 25 lb bag and shipping 75 lbs from New York to Oregon was not cheap ($50), but that still left the overall cost at just a little over $1/lb which I don't mind. It's available at Sculpture House Casting at www.sculptshop.com/cart/s...vstone.htm

I definitely plan to use the stuff again. I thought the grey-green color was pretty cool. I would recommend the stuff if the price is not a problem. -Jim
I ordered a 25 pound box for $32.00 (price included shipping to Michigan from New York). Got it today and cast a few test molds using the Crypt Mold. I gotta tell you the stuff is beautiful. After drying about 30 minutes the pieces are ready for handling and finishing. With a little steel wool smooth surfaces shine like polished stone! I dont think I even want to paint this material!
The brick surfaces hold the detail great and I think I will dry brush them, but any smooth arch, tile or such surface I will keep clear. A tip sheet came in my order and one tip was to apply red or brown shoe polish to help bring out the details. The mixture is similar to plaster of paris and I mix to a milkshake consistency. The mixture need to set about 3 minutes but is still very liquid. The mix also has a gritty, like sand, texture in the cup. This looks like fine grains of quarts or some other reflective material. In the settling process this "grit" sinks and with a little steel wool shines through, great effect.

Im letting a set air dry, I oven dried a set and the came out a milky brown (raw, no finishing) and I didnt like that look. The stone is heavy, heavier then plaster of paris but really hard and difficult to scratch. Anyway, if you want to check it out heres the site: www.sculptshop.com/cart/s...vstone.htm -Augury
Veri-Die
I gotta say this stuff is awesome! Psi is 15,000 - set time is about 13 minutes, time enough to pour 5 molds and still run a toothpick in the dragon accessories mold (barely). It mixed alot smoother than anything else I've tried, and as I just tap the top of the mold with a spoon as I fill it, I had less bubbles than normal.
It comes in a variety of colors. I bought the blue which comes out more like a slate grey. I just restarted casting for my dungeon pieces - I had started with some old plaster but this stuff is way stronger. The pieces come out almost glassy smooth. The mixing ratio was like 1 cup plaster to 1/2 cup water, better than the last stuff I bought! -Chase

Other sources for casting materials

Many of the above customer reviews are not complete. If you want to purchase some of these products above, it's best to go to your favorite search engine and type in the name of the product you want. Several companies should be listed who carry these products. Below are a few sources for casting and mold making material.

Gypsum Solutions. A wonderful resource to find out the properties of different kinds of plasters and where the stores are that you can find them.

Smooth-on. They sell all kinds of mold making and plastic casting products.

Douglas and Sturgess, Inc. Click under the "Plasters and Gypsum Cements". They have a good number of casting materials, along with detailed descriptions of each.

The Compleat Scuptor. They also have an online catalog with casting and mold making materials.

The Sculptors' Place. They also have an online catalog with casting and mold making materials.

Plaster Master Industries. A very strange looking web site - but it has tons of information on various plaster types and uses.

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U.S. Casting Product Reviews | Hirst Arts

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My favorite casting products are Dental Stones shown on the Dental Stone page. I believe these are the best and most durable casting materials to use for your projects. However, there are many other less expensive products available so I've compiled this list of product reviews from my customers.

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Process:
1. Mix plaster, vermiculite and water
according to these ratios: 3 parts
vermiculite, 1 part plaster and
approximately 2 parts water. Mix the
dry ingredients together in a large
bowl or other suitable container
Add the water and let sit until it stops bubbling (1-2 minutes). Mix well with hands, squeezing out all the lumps.
3. After mixing, immediately pour into moulds and tap the sides of the mould to bring air bubbles up to the top.
4. Allow to harden (at least overnight) and cover moulds with plastic bags to keep fresh until ready for use.
5. When the mixture has hardened, carefully remove mould.
6. As the material is very soft and will still be very damp, a plastic or metal knife is a good carving tool. When
the work is finished for the day, return it to the plastic bag to keep it moist until the next class period.
7. Students may carve by setting the block inside a shallow box to contain the mess. Carved material can be
disposed of, or modelled into another project.
8. Once the desired shape is achieved and the remains and dust have been cleared, allow to dry. This may take
several days depending on the humidity and heat. Work will become lighter in color and weight and will no
longer feel damp.
9. When dry, seal with one or two coats of acrylic sealant and mount, if desired, to a wooden base.