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I got a new headset for Christmas and got the idea to create a holder for it. I was thinking of a bust, on which I can put my headset.

I sculpted the bust in the 3D program Blender:

enter image description here

Now there are a few questions open for me, because I never sculpted in real life before.

How can I create this cheaply, and without requiring experience? What materials could I use? What would be a proper workflow?

Thanks in advance, Marc.

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    Ah, please take no offense, but if you are going to put this "holder" on your desk, why don't you make something, uh, pleasant? This fellow is a bit rough and doesn't have any ears. Also, technically speaking, a bust is the head and shoulders of a person, not just the head - technically speaking...
    – bgmCoder
    Dec 25, 2019 at 16:37
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    @bgmCoder, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find this head kinda interesting. :-)
    – fixer1234 ♦
    Dec 25, 2019 at 23:58
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    In D&D, a beholder has one central eye, lots of eyestalklets and fires death rays. hahahhaa
    – bgmCoder
    Dec 26, 2019 at 3:40
  • @bgmCoder - woah! Insult a guy's taste and his vocabulary in one comment... On Christmas Day no less. Sheesh.
    – rebusB
    Dec 31, 2019 at 19:05
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    I didn't really found this thing beauty, aesthetic or attractive seen from a normal viewpoint. Let me say, i found it interesting and kind of funny. I needed some kind of shape that is stable and not easy to be tipped over, so this man with his multiple chins is a perfect choice. The fact that he doesn't have ears is because that a flat surface is more suitable for my current and future headsets.
    – Marc Teuber
    Jan 1, 2020 at 20:07

1 Answer 1

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Decide which media you desire to use. A good choice for a beginner would be the inexpensive medium of Papier-mâché, a composite material of paper pulp and binder. One can use newspaper, shredded office paper, cardboard, just about anything cellulose.

As the link suggests, you can create using the strip method, but for your sculpture, you'd want an armature (structure) on which to base the primary form. Additionally, it's advantageous to use chopped pulp to build up the design shape before applying the strips.

Think of molding clay over an inverted funnel. The funnel reduces the amount you have to "fill" while providing a basic shape. The chopped pulp would be the clay that shapes the curves and bulges of the head, while strips of paper provide a closure of the more coarse pulp, allowing for a smooth finish overal.

It's typical that a sophisticated creation will have a sealing coating of paint, glaze or similar, along with painted features not visible in your Blender creation.

I'm confident you can find many videos regarding this type of sculpting.

paper mache dog

The above is what I consider to be the least expensive option. One could certainly create the head with modeling clay that does not harden, or use a polymer clay that can be carefully baked to be permanently hard. Neither of these would be inexpensive, but the results could be more detailed.

As you already have the creation in Blender, you could also have the model 3D printed. Unless you own a large printer, it would be chopped into pieces, printed and glued together. 3D printing services exist which will create this plastic model, but for a substantial cost.

Our makerspace promotes sharing of services of this sort. I have in the past taken another member's creation, chopped it into six pieces (in Meshmixer) and printed the individual parts.

Once the model is printed, it can be sanded and painted and used as-is. It could also be used as the primary for a silicone mold, which would allow you to resin-cast multiple copies if so desired.

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