Fiber mold capable of taking on intricate detail needed

Sonos · Post by **Sonos** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:50 pm

I need to have better surface resolution using fiber molds. I have considered the following, but wanted your opinions first. Perhaps it has been done before and I just havn't heard...

I have a bowl with very fine surface markings for an intricate design using auto trim (very thin) on the concave surface.

I have fiberfax and plan on adding water and plaster or other substance to make a slurry using a blender. I also have fused silica fiber if needed. I do not have a hardener, and want to know the best to use in this case, unless the plaster mix will work.

I want to make a fibermold for slumping, with the intricate design duplicated in reverse on the mold. I want to use the fiber mold over and over again, fusing different glass combinations (bullseye is what I have now) for different effects. If I cannot get the slurry to harden, then I will try again with a thicker paste and use vacuum bagging. I am afraid by using plaster, the fiber mold will not endure repeated slumps.

Essentially what I am wanting is a durable fiber mold that takes on the intricate detail of the original model composed of various materials.

I plan on coldworking the result with other media, but right now I need this fiber slump mold first.

Any help before I spend 40 hours reinventing stuff already solved would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Sonos

Brock · Post by **Brock** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 10:07 pm

I ttink your best bet would be thin fibre paper rigidized. This mold could then be backed up by a mother mold of some refractory material. Brock

Lionel · Post by **Lionel** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 10:41 pm

Mold Mix 6 - by Zircar - expensive but worth it.

Sonos · Post by **Sonos** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 8:40 am

http://tinyurl.com/2x7h6

This sounds like great stuff! How many pulls can be had from a mold?

This is what I like about it...

Mold Mix 6 is highly resistant to reaction with hot glass and gives the fired work a high quality surface free of-hazing common to investment type molds.

Hey, the less coldworking, the better imo.

Come to think of it, because it is a paste, it should be amendable to vacuum bagging, what do you think?

charlie holden · Post by **charlie holden** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 2:51 pm

When I do intricate detail in the surface of fused and slumped work I pick up the detail in the fuse firing then slump at a low temp over a smooth mold. You won't lose or distort any detail unless you are stretching the glass a lot, (something that is very rare unless you are doing deep drop outs.) If you've got to go up hot enough to fuse, why not pick up the pattern then instead of going up that hot twice?

I use rubber molds to make plaster/silica firing molds, so I can copy the pattern as many times as I want.