Drywall Compound Crafts
Drywall compound is designed to fill in joints between sheets of dry wall, before being troweled and sanded smooth. It is similar to plaster of paris. While drywall compound often comes in powdered form, the way you often find plaster of paris, it also comes in pre-mixed buckets. Its consistency is too thick to pour into a mold; otherwise it can be used for any craft project art plaster is used for, from carving when dry to relief castings of hand prints. Because of its thickness, it is especially well-suited for adding textures to any surface.
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Hand Casting
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Many homes' walls are adorned with round plaques of a child's hand cast in plaster. It's a common school project for grade-schoolers which can be replicated with drywall compound. The compound's relative thickness may not require as sturdy of a mold as liquid plaster; a band of card stock 1-inch wide a foot long or so, stapled into a loop and laid flat on a piece of tin foil or clear sandwich wrap makes a quick and easy mold. The compound can then be added like cake frosting before pressing a child's outstretched fingers into the compound and quickly removing, preserving the diminutive hand when dried.
Figurine Carving
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Drywall compound is well-suited for carving or sculpting with the same tools you use to work dry pottery. These are the sharp-edged potters tools, not the rounded wire loops better for use with moist clay. Rather than carving a figure from solid plaster, you can use a solid base -- from wood to a wire armature -- adding compound with a spatula, then allowing to dry before forming with your sculpting tools. Like any carving, start with larger tools to create basic shapes and move to smaller tools for details.
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Wall Stencils
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Wall stenciling is a little closer to drywall compound's designed use, but it's a much more creative treatment of walls. Rather than applying the compound to joints to be sanded smooth, hiding the joint, a stencil is applied to a finished wall. You can buy stencils in the shape of brick texture, for example. They are thick, adhesive-backed paper. Once applied to the wall, compound is troweled over them. The stencil is then removed, leaving a raised pattern, the thickness of the stencil. You can also make your own stencils and effects.
Painting Texture
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Plaster is an age-old surface to paint on, and one of the most common of Renaissance painters seen in frescoes -- a plaster painting technique. While drywall compound is a great surface to paint, it doesn't need to remain flat. In fact, it's well-suited to create an under-painting texture. Compound can act like gesso, an under-layer applied most often to canvas, creating texture as well as a primed surface. The compound doesn't need to be limited to flat surfaces. Anything you want to paint can be textured with drywall compound, so long as it's porous enough for the compound to adhere to.
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References
Resources
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