Casts come out of the kiln...

Opening a kiln after it has finished firing is always a little nerve wracking for me. So this morning as I unlcok the lid / door, I kind of hold my breath and mutter some sort of incantation / plea for everything to be alright. Today is a happy day! Everything is fine and some of the detail I was experimenting with has come out nicely. Phew. Now for a session of grinding and polishing.

Last part of the branch 2 part mould

At last, the plaster support mould for the other side. It broke as I was prising it off, but it still works.

Cute piles of ash

These are the little piles from after burning the sticks out of the plater silica moulds... I'm using the ash later to rub into the glass (to give the detail some definition)

Brush on?

I seem to be trying every sort of mould making material this year. The  (red and yellow) re-meltable stuff, Pinkysil (pink) and now today a brush on product (blue) called Gelsil. I haven't used this type of stuff before. It's a 2 part mix. On opening the tub and trying to dollop out the white part I wondered about the description 'brush on'...imagine beating egg whites for a meringue and adding bubble gum and you'll get an idea of the consistency, much much stiffer than bathroom silicon. You need  good cake / concrete mixing arm to combine the two parts. The 'brushing on' step was more like persuading, trowel-ing or pushing action. Though I guess for a term to use brush on is OK.
So today I set up the branch with a surround of clay and applied the first layer. I used half a kilo for one side. It takes between 6-12 hours to set so i'll come back tomorrow for the next layer which I may do in a cheaper bathroom silicon.

Crazy casting day

I've been trying to work out how to pump out casts of sticks quickly. One of the slow parts is the first essential layer...as in the most important to 'get right' layer. I had though about dipping them, in the end I got the clay 'resevoir' mounds ready. Part dipped part sloshed the plaster over the sticks in the bucket then stuffed one end of the stick into the clay and quickly redabbed over the place I had touched. I did this 8 times and thought wow this is really working until I realised that I would have to complete 8 moulds before I went home...smaaaaart. (this was in the afternoon, I had already made 8 simple openfaced moulds. Crazy but I made 16 moulds in one day!

Surgery!

Surgery...well it felt like it. After having left the rubber to cure properly, I came back to it a few days later and sliced it down one side in a wavy pattern so it it more likely to lock together more. I used my scalpel, and having to prize apart the rubber with my fingers (which as you can see is red and rubbery) it felt rather gross. I also ordered 4 kilos of plastimake today to make my 'mother mould' with. The mother mould will keep the floppy rubbery bit firm and in shape. A lot of people use plaster or fibre glass. I have made one with plaster, but with this size it becomes very heavy and somewhat fragile with man handling. Fibreglass on the other hand is light and strong but isn't allowed in our studio because we aren't equipped safety wise. However yet another offhand comment from Marcus made me think...yeah WHY don't I make it out of plastimake? We shall see...

Remaking the long branch mould

My last attempt at making a long branch rubber mould was a failure. After a chat with Marcus I decided on another method.
The idea is to pour the rubber around the entire object in one go then slice it open. This means entirely surrounding the branch and levitating it.  With a new microwave and electric stove top we just had enough heating power an volume to pour most of the mould in one go.

Branch held up with boards and screws
The beginning of the clay damming

branch inside completed clay dam

View of poured and set rubber

Kiln 15 set to go!

I have been furiously making moulds and kiln 15 is now full and set to go

Mould mash ups with Matt Perez - Day 3

Last night we were told to make a small wax object to cast, no bigger than one's clenched fist. As I was doing some other work on the computer, it was 11pm before I thought WAX! Yikes!
Here is a pic of my wax bird before it gets covered in plaster silica.

The whole class invested their objects, my invested bird looks rather cat like.

Invested bird

After the moulds were steamed, cleaned and filled with furnace glass frit, lunch was eaten before the coloured bullseye glass sheets were brought out. I think everyone else was pleased to see colour...in glass I find it overwhelming...unless I have an idea to go with it. Here are some of the designs put in the kiln by the class.

Mould mash ups with Matt Perez - Day 2

So we had some mashed up moulds, right? This morning was the time to 'Frankenstein' them together. Here is my mould, made out of three different moulds made from 'textured tiles'. One swapped with Trish.

My Frankenstein...

Mould mash ups with Matt Perez - Day 1

Mashing up on the first day...woo!

'Tile' moulds

Sawing or floor dropping to break up

a possible Frankenstein to be

Sorry Matt but I spell mould with a 'u'. Any how I am doing one of SCA's object lab courses, a casting, kiln-forming workshop called 'Mould mash ups' with Matthew Day Perez. Even though the workshop caters for beginners, Matt is an artist I very much admire so I think it is worth it.

Branch moulds

Blood jelly!

I was in Barnes this morning, buying a couple of kilos of mould making material when I walked past this shelf... Blood jelly, pumping blood, flowing blood, stay wet blood, realistic drying blood syrup..

Experiments: model and mould making

Leaves and trees (more of)

Shaping up a new clay mould, trying out forms that are raised and incised.

Studio day

A very botanical investing session. Tegan and I invested her 'seed pods' and I made an open faced mould for the leaf inclusions. We both had to quit at 12.30, Tegan for work and myself for a pre visitor tidy up at home.