These sex-positive plaster casts are transforming private parts into public art

Once upon a time, you might have had your portrait painted to hang in your front room. Now, queer Russian duo Masha and Masha are persuading women everywhere to have their vulvas made into elegant plaster casts, playful lollipops, or candles.

Masha Dodosova and Masha Lysikova started off experimenting with plaster models of their friends’ and partners’ genitalia for fun. After kinking up parties with penis- and vulva-shaped candles and lollipops, their business has since exploded thanks to their growing Instagram profile.

After taking St Petersburg and Moscow by storm, the pair are organising their first ever London event on 19 October: a cosy, sex-positive party called Forbidden Beauty. The event, which kicks off with a discussion on sexuality and tactile games, comes to a climax with a plaster cast session for your own private parts.

The event is women-only, but the duo also offer services for men, despite the fact they say it’s technically much harder to make a plaster cast penis, particularly if it’s erect.

“We’ve never had a woman say ‘ew’ when seeing their plastered vulvas,” Masha and Masha say. “Perhaps because of the ancient Greek sculpture we’re used to, we tend to see our own representation in stone as beautiful.”