The moulding process is fairly simple to do but you need a few things, (sorry no photographs) -
I use a two-part room-temperature vulcanisation (RTV) mixture to make the rubber mould. I get it from my local casting supplies shop, but you can order it from a number of places on the web. This is the stuff I use:
http://www.amcsupplies.com.au/index.php ... ts_id=1466
For this project, I cut a block of balsa wood to about the right size rectangle and coated it with a gloss varnish. Then I glued it onto a piece of 3mm Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) and built an open-topped box around it out of scrap MDF, leaving about 1cm around the outside for the mould compound.
Working out exactly how much mould mixture you need is next - here's a trick. Fill the box up with sand and then pour the sand into a measuring jar. That's how much mould mixture you need.
Seal off the edges of the box with plasticine or DAS or something similar, then pour in the mixture. It'll take about a day to dry. Once it's set, you should have a mould ready to take a decent sized block of plaster.
I plan on making a larger column next, so I'll document the process and take lots of photos along the way for an article.
I carve this one when it was fully dry, but will experiment and see if doing the carving while it's still a bit wet is easier. Having basic blocks of plaster means I can make all sorts of things now; statues, columns, fountains - I even thought of making a Tardis.
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The pillar looks great, I will look forward to seeing your take on this area of middle earth.