Mold-making process for the Urchin Cups! Thanks to @chehalemculturalcenter and the Chehalem ceramics community for your support. I've been thinking about making these cups for a few years now, and this residency was just what I needed to make it happen.
Slide 1 ~ Finished four-part Urchin Cup plaster mold, ready for slipcasting, disassembled to show detail. The rest of the slides show step-by-step how I got to this end result.
Slide 2, 3, 4 ~ First I create the original solid clay model for the Urchin Cup, thrown on the wheel upside down and detailed by hand. This original will be destroyed during the mold-making process.
Slide 5 ~ Next I start making the plaster mold around the original clay model. Here, liquid plaster has been poured into the first of four plaster mold sections. The body of the cup will be divided into 3 mold sections, and the foot of the cup will be a fourth section. Planning how to make slipcasting molds is solving a 3D puzzle that's different for every project.
Slide 6 ~ All four mold sections casted in plaster around the original clay model. The half-round registration keys will lock the mold sections together as a single unit for slipcasting.
Slide 7 ~ Original clay model removed, four-part plaster mold cleaned up, reassembled, and banded together ~ ready for slipcasting! I usually make some modifications to the plaster mold after seeing the first slipcasting result. In this case, I widened the mouth of the cup, smoothed some of the flat areas, and carved out 8 or 10 points where the slipcasting was getting caught as it came out of the mold.
It is SO satisfying to pop the slipcasted cups out of the plaster mold, especially after putting so much into the mold-making process, and avoiding multiple potential points of failure along the way. (Liquid plaster running everywhere... badly mixed plaster not capturing the detail of the original model... mold sections not fitting together tightly... mold sections stuck to each other... mold sections miscalculated so the slipcasting gets stuck in the mold... I could go on...!)
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#slipcasting #moldmaking #plastermold #ceramics #keramik #oceaninspired #urchincup #seaurchin #oceanceramics
3 months ago
Emily Jung Miller
