How To Use Plaster Molds For Ceramics

Drape molds are similar in concept to hump molds.

How to use plaster molds for ceramics.

To learn how he press molds his cup handles and adds beautiful slip floral decoration see the october 2017 issue of ceramics monthly. Plaster has a lot of uses in the pottery studio from plaster drying bats to simple hump molds. Here you ll learn how to make ceramic molds as well as how to use them. The purpose of mold release is to form a barrier between objects so you can separate them later.

Wood molds also eliminate the risk of plaster chipping and contaminating clay. However they are typically more shallow than humps. For allistair and sally macdonell press molds really came in handy for a series of ceramic jewelry that they wanted to make. At the ceramic shop we carry a number of wooden drape molds which are lighter weight alternatives to plaster molds.

Browse through our archive of articles to find a variety of techniques from making plaster molds for slip casting and press molding to making bisque clay hump or slump molds to creating molds for casting clay sculpture. To do so evenly roll out your clay to the thickness you desire using rolling clay slab sticks 3 8 inch is a good starting point. Plaster press molds are very useful when you are planning to make multiples of a particular form or an embellishment to a form. Plaster cast molds are fired like ceramics to remove the water content but at a much lower temperature a maximum of 500 f.

The last tip was on mixing and pouring plaster. In this post an excerpt from the ceramics monthly archives ben jordan shares his process for making a cup using plaster press molds. Inexpensive and easy to mix and pour plaster of paris can recreate exact details and dries solidly. Plus they explain how they use stamps to texture each slab.

Ways to use plaster molds this is the second in a series of 3 tips on plaster and molds. The second type of mold is a bisque mold which is super easy to make yourself. Jennifer poellot harnetty editor. In this post the macdonells show us how easy it is to make plaster press molds.

Getting the plaster right can be a little challenging if you are new to it so today we wanted to give you a primer on how to mix plaster.