Anyone have any clever ideas for how to...

[phdlife]

My sister writes, "My neighbor has a couple of picture frames I really like. One is carved and old and one is an imitation of that. I have great desire to make a copy/mold of them to turn into my own things... Should I do a paper mache thing? A plaster cast? Some sort of decopaugeyish? Other?
How do I protect the frame. Vaseline? Clingfilm? Other?"

Any suggestions, o wise MNers?

tia

it depends on the design of the frame and how ornate the design is.

if you have something with leaves and vines etc in 3D then it is a bit difficult if not impossible due to the shapes and not being able to mold round the back of them.

if its not to ornate then you could try a test section. plaster could work. yes you would need to protect the original with something. did you get any tips from googling this? i have just logged on so have not looked yet.

hi moocow, no I haven't googled - good idea.

I thought latex, not that I have any idea how one uses it, only twelve years ago I had some animator friends who used it to make fairly sensitive moulds, iykwim.

yes this could work however i don't know how to do it.

only drawback is if its large frame when you do your reproduction from it you have to make sure all the edges are nice and straight and square. latex is a bit wobble and not very rigid.