Break out of the mold

4/6/2014

Teardrop Camper Mold - Clare Urquhart

Mold Making

Well I finally finished my mold making sessions in the studio and now I have 4 x three-piece molds for miniature caravans, an alphabet press mold, 2 sea creature/shell molds and a few different banksia molds.

The banksia was a little bit challenging, due to the nature of using the natural object to make the mold from, but I hope it will look awesome when I pour a few banksias from them!

The teacup, however, was a bust and I have to redo it - lesson learned, do not play with plaster before it has hardened properly!

soft soaping during the mold making process

Mixing pouring Slip

I found an old bucket of porcelain slip that I had in the shed which I thought I could use to start my pour process - wrong!
It had been stored for about two years (possibly longer...?) so I think I can safely assume that it is a little too old to use - darn!

I was hoping not to have to mix up more pouring slip, but I think I am going to have to. Alternatively I could just buy some pre-mixed slip which would quicken my process and get me started much more faster - so I might even go down this road to get me started off and then mix up a batch later... we'll see...

Studio Process

Hopefully this week I will get a chance to pour some of these little treasures and have a few images to show next week - Yay!
As I said in an earlier post, this is the process I enjoy the most, pouring the objects and seeing all the little duplicates emerge from their molds, fun, fun, fun.

Sunday Ceramics
Please check out the other muddy studios on Sunday Ceramics.

Until next week, keep creating....

5 Comments

Kim @ Frogpondsrock link

4/6/2014 04:37:47 am

Or, you could just make your own slip? I make all mine and it ends up costing me about $15 for a ten litre bucket.

Cut up one bag of clay into chunks (I use walkers 10) put it into a bucket and pour over three litres of boiling water. leave overnight.
Add 2.5 mls of dispex to a cup of boiling water and add that to the clay. then add 15 mls of sodium silicate and mix it all together with a paint mixer. Then sieve it through a colander and leave overnight again
The next day I add about another litre of water and then sieve it again through smaller sieves until I eventually go through an 80# sieve.
It is a bit of a process but I can now make any slip I want. porcelain, or a sculptural slip from my slop bin.
Only thing is if the slip is too thick NEVER EVER add more dispes, always add more water

Clare link

4/6/2014 05:23:20 am

Thanks Kim - I will make my own, I just get so impatient sometimes - silly for a ceramic artist hey, it's all about the process!

Shawna link

4/7/2014 03:48:04 am

What are "banksias"? I've never heard that term before...

Found you via Sunday Ceramics. :)

Shawna
jsbarts.blogspot.com

4/8/2014 09:11:13 am

Hi Shawna, Banksias are native Australian shrubs with really beautiful, interesting looking seed pods - google the name for an image - Thanks for reading :)

Anna's Ceramics

4/8/2014 08:32:13 am

looks like you are on a roll... I have some mould ideas but just haven't made the time to get setup for plaster... one day.. in the mean time good on you for making your own pouring slip!

Earth Fire Spirit Studio