A couple of posts ago I talked about using polystyrene for both press and slump moulds.
In my professional career I always find that accepting a challenge to deliver a result to a schedule is the most powerful catalyst to learning. When you take it on you may have only the haziest idea about how to execute the task, and at best an unattractive fallback plan. Necessity and innovation are great partners, in potting too.
I've been commissioned to make some pots recently, from 180mm to 550mm in length; circular, oval rectangular, square. While I have a few moulds for pots around the 300 to 400mm length nothing at either end of the spectrum and while I have made some hand/slab/coil constructed pots the result , both inside and outside the pot is not the same as with a mould. That does depend on the finish you are after and ok, I'm open to the thought that this might be a matter of capability and experience too!
And so this necessity lead me to experiment with polystyrene, as both mould and support while drying. Todays post is to show you a range of shohin pots that were the result of that experimentation. They have just had their bisque firing and I mixed the galzes for them today, for application tomorrow.
At this stage it is good just to absorb the variety of shapes without being distracted by colour.
The pots are not large, but the walls are quite fine and they take more time to complete than their size would suggest.
Which ones do you like the best, from 1 at the top to 10 at the bottom?
In my professional career I always find that accepting a challenge to deliver a result to a schedule is the most powerful catalyst to learning. When you take it on you may have only the haziest idea about how to execute the task, and at best an unattractive fallback plan. Necessity and innovation are great partners, in potting too.
I've been commissioned to make some pots recently, from 180mm to 550mm in length; circular, oval rectangular, square. While I have a few moulds for pots around the 300 to 400mm length nothing at either end of the spectrum and while I have made some hand/slab/coil constructed pots the result , both inside and outside the pot is not the same as with a mould. That does depend on the finish you are after and ok, I'm open to the thought that this might be a matter of capability and experience too!
And so this necessity lead me to experiment with polystyrene, as both mould and support while drying. Todays post is to show you a range of shohin pots that were the result of that experimentation. They have just had their bisque firing and I mixed the galzes for them today, for application tomorrow.
At this stage it is good just to absorb the variety of shapes without being distracted by colour.
The pots are not large, but the walls are quite fine and they take more time to complete than their size would suggest.
Which ones do you like the best, from 1 at the top to 10 at the bottom?
All 10 are fantastic can't wait to see the glazes.
ReplyDeleteHey Happy,
ReplyDelete#10 is very usable , 1,2,6 less so. How dod you know out 10 new molds so fast?
Good job
big Dave
Good to hear from you Big Dave. As for the 10 new shapes see Post 80. Many of them share the same internal shape - so once you have a good slump mould shape then the outside can be customised.
ReplyDeleteHappy Potter