I bought this bust on Kijiji last November for $25. The seller told me, “It was made of heavy plaster”, it turned out that it was made of brown clay. 
I found this out after attempting to wash off the stains and the paint came off as well. I ended up washing the piece in the kitchen sink using dish soap and a light scrub brush.
Over the next eight months I researched how to paint and improve the appearance of this piece. In the end, I settled on Rust-Oleum Chalked Ultra Matte spray paint in Linen White ($20). I used Polyfilla to fill in small air bubbles and even out some chips and imperfections in the clay. I also purchased a set of affordable dental tools from Amazon, which I used to sharpen the details of the bust. ($15)
I ended up putting three coats of paint on this piece. I realize this seems like a lot, but each time after it dried, I could still see the light-brown clay underneath. I’m thinking this piece likely dates from the 1970s or 80s and it'll certainly never have much collectible value. All I wanted to do was to make this piece more visually appealing and give it a more authentic appearance.
The pics are shown in order of how the bust looked when I got it home, after a bath in the sink and after a paint job.
It certainly looks good from a distance.
Thanks for looking,
Dave
I found this out after attempting to wash off the stains and the paint came off as well. I ended up washing the piece in the kitchen sink using dish soap and a light scrub brush.Over the next eight months I researched how to paint and improve the appearance of this piece. In the end, I settled on Rust-Oleum Chalked Ultra Matte spray paint in Linen White ($20). I used Polyfilla to fill in small air bubbles and even out some chips and imperfections in the clay. I also purchased a set of affordable dental tools from Amazon, which I used to sharpen the details of the bust. ($15)
I ended up putting three coats of paint on this piece. I realize this seems like a lot, but each time after it dried, I could still see the light-brown clay underneath. I’m thinking this piece likely dates from the 1970s or 80s and it'll certainly never have much collectible value. All I wanted to do was to make this piece more visually appealing and give it a more authentic appearance.
The pics are shown in order of how the bust looked when I got it home, after a bath in the sink and after a paint job.
It certainly looks good from a distance.
Thanks for looking,
Dave
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