It took about half an hour to trace each shape with the x-acto knife. I had to press hard enough to cut through the paper, but if I was too hard, the plaster would crumble. It was a little tricky.
After I was done tracing all the outlines, I peeled the paper off, and started carving out the depth. this part was very meticulous and tricky. The plaster wanted to crumble. I used a knife to outline shapes and a jeweler's screwdriver to scrape material away and leave a flat bottom.
This is the finished product and is what the pewter slide will look like. I'm tempted to try to build up some of the letter edges that crumbled away, but I also am contemplating leaving it looking a little more organic and doing less work.
Next, I have to cover this carved plaster puck with a mold release and pour some other mold material over it to get a negative. I originally thought of just using more plaster, but we tried a test doing that, and it didn't work out too well. So I ordered some high temperature silicone material online. When it comes, I'll post the rest of our progress.