Large plaster skulls are attractive when you don’t want to make traditional sugar skulls. Good for young children who don’t have the dexterity to operate an icing bag. Also good for ofrenda builders who must leave their altars outside in variable weather where sugar skulls would be getting moist. Artists enjoy a plaster skull when making finer artwork.
- Large plaster skulls are usually made with just the face side of a two piece mold; however, advanced crafters can bond both back and fronts together using fast drying epoxy (make sure to “rough up” the mating sides with coarse sand paper to get a good bond). We recommend the Original Large (W3500), Original Medium (W3501) or Oaxacan Medium (W3492). The Oaxacan X-Large(W3480) and Guadalupe (W3485) molds are just pretty big and take a long time to dry, but they can be used.
- Make sure you have enough molds for your project as they take a long time to dry inside the mold.
- Do not consider making the sombreros in plaster as they can’t be fitted easily to match the skull heads.
- Follow the directions above but increase the amount of plaster you mix up to about 1.5 cups and 1 cup water per mold and best spray molds with PAM or other crafter’s mold release before filling.
- Drying time is increased too, (sometimes up to 48 hours) but this is very dependent on your ambient temperature.