Description

Didn't know where to post this - but the 3D category seemed the most appropriate, tho it's not digital 3D!

This is a bas-relief sculpt done for a recent Pope John Paul II commemorative. This is a final plaster that was used to make the coin you see at bottom right.

Relief sculpture like this is different than most sculpture because it has to be done in clay no deeper than 1/8 of an inch (yes, you read that correctly!) to facilitate the "stamping" process of making the final coin instead of casting, which is the method used for deeper relief reproductions. At this shallow relief, most of the 3D effect is an illusion of the highest areas being sculpted to a lower depth against another high area to make it look as if it's actually more 3D than it actually is.

After the clay model is finished in the 9 inch plaster basin, 2-3 plaster castings are made and detailed/refined for the final, with care to put in enough detail to be retained on the much smaller coin (1.5 inches or smaller), but not too much that it will be lost in reduction when engraving the coining dies.

See my accompanying thread in the discussion section for a link to a site that has a QuickTime movie of coin making:
How to Make a Coin - Believe It or Not!!!

or go directly here: http://www.greatwesternmint.com