Plaster works
Plaster is a medium that has a great balance between cost and permanence. I did lots of work in plaster. I spent a full year of my life casting about 500 pounds of plaster every day in the form of plaster columns. It can be fiber reinforced and cast in large molds, but it can also be worked like clay in some respects. I did many sculptures that were cast in plaster quickly and economically. It is somewhat of a lost art now that we have other means of fabrication which take less knowledge and fewer passed-down skills.
It is possible to produce a sculpture that will endure for a lifetime in plaster with just a day of effort.
Preserved sketches
Plaster is a great medium to quickly preserve a sculpture that was meant to be just a study. Producing a long lasting sculpture in bronze or stone is expensive and working out ideas in those mediums is ill advised, even though it is often done by people in a rush these days. However, studies are often worth keeping. It turns out many studies turn into finished works that stand on their own merit.
Affordability
Most of my sculptures would not exist today if it weren’t for my ability to cast plaster quickly without fear. Plaster molds are delicate and prone to complete failure, and that can cause some people to be paralyzed with the fear of losing their work.
removing barriers to forward progress
In order to make things, things must be made. I like to repeat the wisdom that “criticism is easier than fabrication”. I have made a lot of things for others to criticize. Good things don’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a willingness to learn from criticism to make anything of value.