Post #619998 by danlovestikis on Fri, Jan 6, 2012 8:34 AM

hang10tiki isn't there an athlete named the machine? I do know how to work hard and I'm very organized. Most of all I have the best partner in the world. Dan hates making molds but he does it because he loves me and my art. He works for tikis. I couldn't do all this work without his help.

WestADad you are such a dear heart. The bruise is gone and so is most of the tenderness. We always get banged up making molds.

MDM it is so scary and so much fun to open the mold and to see if the work you did was good or not. It's a ways off.

Chuck my photos don't even show half the work. So many parts generate hazards. We are constantly cleaning the table tops and the floor to keep dust from entering our home. Breathing it now would give us lung disease in the future.

I'm going to post all the photos for the second mold right now. Here goes the rest of the moldy story.

Using my favorite kitchen tool to make lots of clay snakes to plug cracks.

To make a second mold you just remove one piece and re-pour it. Then you go on to the next piece one by one until every piece is new. Once again I'm prepping with the snakes.

Poured the side and when the plaster was semi hard I carved in a 2 for second mold.

Oh no! I forgot the mold soap. I kept my fingers crossed that there was enough left over from the first time that it wasn't going to all fuse and ruin the first mold. I was very lucky. A few of the round locks broke off. So I just carved them out. If I didn't then the mold piece we removed would not fit because its locks still existed.

I kept putting the mold together until it fit. Now it was time to make another piece and to use mold soap every time.

Now I filled any gaps that existed between the mold and the sculpt. You hope you don't have these because more clean up of poured mugs will be needed but if there is a gap you have to go with it the best you can.

Ready to pour. Remember to pound the sides of the box to get out the bubbles.

Poured and waiting to have a 2 carved into it..

The first piece on the first mold I forgot to make a hole. We had to drill it out. It's much easier to make the hole out of clay. make the size and shape you want and put it in place.

Paint with mold soap twice and blot.

To celebrate New Years day I decided to break my resolution to not fall and hurt myself. Here's Dan in the room with me as I waited for the doctor to come in.

I had plugged in a shop vac to suck up extra soap bubbles. I plugged it in then I turned and tripped over the cord. I came down like a log and hit my forehead on the concrete floor. Here's lookin at ya!

So with banged up ankles, knee and head we went back to work. After the plaster set I used a rasp to level all the sides so that when we turn it over it would sit flat.

When the plaster has set remove the plug. Don't let it stay in there and dry because it will become hard and difficult to remove.

The last piece is poured. Hurray!!

Using straps we checked to see if we could take the mold apart and put it back together again.

Dan swept then mopped the floor while I went in to put my feet up.

Later we took both molds apart and put each piece on top of boards and started a fan to blow on them. It takes a couple of weeks to dry them out. You must dry them completely the first time so that the plaster will retain its detail for your casts. After this it's ok to pour each day. Some artists who like their work thin will do more than one a day. I like thick mugs so I will do just one set per day. the mold needs to completely dry between casts so that it is able to pull water from the slip.

So while these dry I'm going to start sculpting for new Resin Chunk Lamps for Roge. There's never a dull moment. I'll start posting those photos tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing this part of the journey with me. The next leg of the trip will be when the molds are dry. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2012-01-06 16:34 ]