Post #744458 by danlovestikis on Mon, Jun 8, 2015 1:48 PM

hang10tiki it's fun to see your name here, always.

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Opening the new mold the next day so that the mold would dry faster. This only works if your mold is super thick. If it's not thick it can twist and warp as it dries and you'll either have lots of leaks to plug or the mold will not work at all.

First piece removed.

I hit the vegetable chopper with the rubber mallet so the second piece would come loose.

Dan lifted it out of the way.

Looks good so far.

I turned it around and pried the next piece loose.

Dan lifted it away.

He took off the end piece and

removed the sculpture.

We set the pieces up for the fan to blow air on them.

This fan ran on high from 1/21/15 until 2/13/15 the day we did the first cast.

Three weeks later it's time to put it together and to pour a mug. Here are the first 3 pieces together.

4th piece and then

They are all together and strapped.

Dan mixes the slip. It took 1 gallon of slip to fill this mold.

This mug has lots of detail so we fill it slowly while I hit the side with the rubber mallet.

Going slow and hitting it helps prevent air bubbles from forming.

We filled it to the top. The mug starts so far below this level that I didn't have to top it off during the 2 hours it sits.

We begin to pour it out.

When it's almost empty I check with a flashlight to make sure there is no hang-up of mushy slip at the bottom. It looks good.

It will stay upside down overnight to drain and to firm up.

The slip that was removed it returned to the jar. It will need some water added to get it back to the usable consistency.

I decided that it was easier to keep track of how many we poured by marking the side of the mold with a wax crayon. 1 down. We will need to pour a mug every day we are home to have enough made for the Sacramento Crawl the first weekend in October.

Next will be the opening of the mold to see if the mug is OK or not.

Cheers, Wendy