Post #695207 by Tipsy Yeti on Wed, Oct 2, 2013 2:06 PM

As I progress through this process, it occurred to me that if I can make some more molds of these designs then the whole process will move along much faster. Casting one mug a day is for the birds. I decided that 10 of each mold would be a good number. That way I can just bring 100 pieces to the place with the kiln every couple of weeks. But making the original mold took an entire day, so I wanted to figure out a way to make multiple molds quickly. I figured " what if I considered each part of the mold to be a sculpture and mold them?" So that's what I did. In my previous work I've made hundreds of silicone rubber molds and thousands of plaster molds, I began by building mold boxes around all of the mold pieces.

Using foam core and hot glue...

Then mixed up enough mold making silicone to fill the boxes to the required thickness. After degassing the silicone I simply poured the silicone over the top of the mold models and filled the boxes.

The silicone took many hours to cure, so the next day I simply dismantled the mold boxes and removed the original plaster mold pieces from their new molds.

Then I mixed up enough pottery plaster to fill the silicone molds and poured it in, being careful to release all the air bubbles that may form on the serfice of the silicone.

After the plaster had set, warmed up and began the cool down I carefully pulled the new mold pieces from the silicone master molds. Then I assembled them and set the new production molds aside to dry.

Using this method, I was able to make all 10 of my production molds in 2 days. It may not be a new method but I've not seen it used here yet.
Hope this is interesting to some of you.
Thanks for looking.