Plaster Mold & Slip Cast Object


Plaster Mold & Slip Cast Object

So my strategy was to make a planter pot with a water drip tray at the bottom 

It’s supposed to be a jellyfish...











After using the CNC machine to carve out a positive for the mould, I realized how difficult plaster mould-making actually is. It took me several attempts, and all of them failed at some point. At one stage, everything spilled into each other and I ended up with a full table covered in white plaster that took me over an hour to clean......





  




 









I had five attempts at making the plaster mould, and each one fell apart. The top piece needed five separate moulds to fit together, but I ran out of time because I kept failing.

I would still try this again since I have the foam positive, but realistically I should’ve scaled the project down. I had never worked with ceramics before, so taking this on was already a lot.

For the top piece alone, I made around nine attempts , three leaked, two were mixed at the wrong consistency, and the remaining ones are either unusable or falling apart in important areas. I still have three, but none of them actually work. But after everything retrospectively, I think I will still keep attempting it. 

There was a point where I had to pause this assignment for a week because I was so annoyed with how many times I have failed the ceramic plaster. 

I realize my first attempt with the plaster mold, was good enough because it had all the details of what I wanted, even though the bottom part was uneven because as you can see from the photo above, I waited way too long to pour it.




FIRST SLIP CAST  3 SLIP CAST 





5 SLIP CAST  

For the slip casting part, I actually had fun. It was really nice to learn the process and carve into it. The first couple casts were definitely fails, but I kind of accepted that, and by the third and fourth you could see real improvement and it became way easier to work with.

Even though my plaster mould is probably the worst plaster mould ever, I was still really determined to finish this project, and I honestly think it turned out really well.

I used a syringe to remove slip from the middle. I also learned a better technique, letting it sit flat for about 10 minutes, pouring out the excess slip, then using the syringe again to take more from the center before placing it on a diagonal.

After letting it dry for around 30 minutes, I used an air gun to slowly release the cast. By my fifth attempt, I finally got a solid piece, then trimmed the sides and smoothed the edges.








 

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