Post #655373 by Trader Tom on Sat, Oct 13, 2012 5:42 AM

Well, I got busy and haven't posted anything on my ceramics in a while, but I've kept at it.

I'm going to pick up the first couple of glaze-fired skull mugs from the kiln this weekend and will post pics of how they turned out when I get a chance. So far, I have a dozen made and will have a bunch available for sale shortly before Halloween.

I'm also playing with another vintage mold. Just pulled the first casting from it about an hour ago.

You may recognize it in lamp form. Go Tiki has used it before to make some really nice lamps.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=24254&forum=18&start=210&hilite=ken%20ocorr

The mold is a Ken Ocorr mold from the 1960's. Ocorr ran a mold-making facility in Long Beach, CA for many years. My guess is that he or someone else made this mold based off of an earlier design and then sold it to be used by home hobbyists.

This was the largest mold I've ever used and it went pretty smoothly except for when I was pouring slip back out of the mold. I thought I had it all but I didn't expect a delayed "ketchup bottle" effect and ended up with slip all over the kitchen floor. It mopped up easily enough, but next time I will use a bucket instead of trying to smoothly pour it all back into the narrow opening of the 2-gallon container I was using. Live and learn.

Anyway, more updates soon.