◆ Concrete
Concrete head planter mold, classical David
A classical David head planter in concrete, the crown hollowed into a pot with a drainage hole. A silicone mold kit from printed parts.
◆ Concrete
A classical David head planter in concrete, the crown hollowed into a pot with a drainage hole. A silicone mold kit from printed parts.
The classical head planter: the head of Michelangelo's David, curls, brow and all, 112 mm tall, its crown cut flat and hollowed into a planter well 49 mm across at the rim and 45 mm deep, with a 7 mm wall everywhere and an 8 mm drainage hole that runs down through the neck to the foot. A trailing string of pearls, a small fern or an echeveria grows out of his hair. The master is not a remodel: it is a 3D scan of the plaster cast of David's head in the Royal Cast Collection of SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark, which SMK publishes as public domain. It is 254 ml, about 559 g in concrete.
Made with the hugging-shell mode of our silicone mold maker, the mode the tool itself suggests: a head is all undercut, so a silicone skin about 10 mm thick follows it inside two printed shell halves and takes about 579 ml of silicone. The well becomes a silicone core and the drain a pin on its tip. The tool notes the head narrows toward the opening at the neck, so pick a tear-resistant silicone and peel the skin back slowly.
Cast it in white for the gallery look, grey for a balcony, or charcoal with a gold-leaf brow. The zip carries every printed part, the planter master as its own STL, the tool's own print-settings sheet and a recipe file for the generator.
Shown as a 3D render of the printed mold parts pulled apart around the master, not a photo.
Print the base, which has the master already fused onto it, the two shell halves and the six clamps (all six are in clamps.stl). No supports.
Stand the base plate on the table, set each shell half down a few centimetres out from it and slide it in until the ridge round the plate sits in the groove at its foot. Push the six clamps over the seams: the shells cannot lift after that, and the ridge seals the bottom.
Tape the outside seams or run a bead of hot glue along them, because silicone finds every gap.
Mix 623 ml of silicone in one batch, pour it into the open top in a thin stream, and fill level with the rim. It fills the well as it rises and becomes the core.
Once it has cured, take the clamps off, slide each shell half straight out and peel the silicone off the master the way the last step describes. That silicone is your mold: a skin with the core standing inside it.
Turn the silicone over and set it back in the shell to keep its shape: the opening is the foot of the planter, with the drainage pin on the tip of the core. Pour a fluid concrete or Jesmonite slowly down one side, tap the shell for a minute to raise the air, and strike the foot flat, wiping the pin tip clean.
Demold after a day: take the shell off and peel the skin back over the curls a little at a time, then twist the head off the core and the drainage pin. Sand the foot flat and seal it.
Fresh concrete is alkaline: soak the planter in water for a day, or wait two weeks, before you plant in it.
Print details
| Cast material | Concrete |
|---|---|
| Printed parts | 9 |
| Size (W x D x H) | 116 x 132 x 125 mm |
| Print bed needed | 132 x 96 mm, 125 mm tall |
| Filament | ~330 g |
| Layer height | 0.2 mm |
| Infill | 15% |
| Supports | Not needed |
| Download | ZIP: 9 printed parts in 4 STL files + head planter master (STL) + print sheet + recipe |
| Added | 2026-10-01 |
Made with the free Silicone mold maker generator. Upload your own model and get the same kind of mold built around it, in your browser.
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Yes. It is a 3D scan of the plaster cast of David's head in SMK's Royal Cast Collection in Copenhagen, the kind art academies copied the original from. SMK publishes the scan as public domain. We cut the crown flat, hollowed it into a well with a 7 mm wall and a drain, and set it on a flat foot.
Plants that trail or spill like hair: string of pearls, string of hearts, a small trailing pothos, or a tuft of mondo grass; or a single echeveria for a crown. The well is 49 mm across at the rim and 45 mm deep, so choose plants from 5 to 6 cm nursery pots and plant them in a free-draining mix.
Because the head is wider at the crown and the face than at the neck, where the mold opens, so the skin stretches as the cast comes out. A tear-resistant silicone (Shore 20 to 30A, a high-tear grade) takes that stretch for many casts. Peel it back slowly over the curls and nose rather than pulling.
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