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Way to copy a ceramic mold - time constraint
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2003 4:44 pm
by Debinsandiego
Hello,
I have a customer that likes one of my glass pieces, so much she is buying 50 of them !! That's the good news. The not so good news is, I only have ONE mold and she want's all 50 rather soon!! I've been all over town looking for another mold. I'm afraid I bought it at a ceramics shop that closed years ago. There are several I've found that are close, but not quite the same shape.
Any one have any tricks to copying an existing mold??
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2003 4:48 pm
by charlie
take it to a ceramics place and ask them to do a slip pour and make you 10 of them. ask them to let you drill the holes before they bisque them.
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2003 5:38 pm
by Barbara Cashman
charlie wrote:take it to a ceramics place and ask them to do a slip pour and make you 10 of them. ask them to let you drill the holes before they bisque them.
In order to do the slip casting, you need a plaster master mold. The ceramics shop may be able to do that, but perhaps not. (Mine didn't.) Understand that the new mold will shrink slightly from your original. Depending on the size of the piece (ie a 9" plate is now 8 1/2"), the shrinkage *could* be significant. However, if you make all the new product from the new mold, your customer may not notice the difference. I had to do this very thing myself once, and this was *my* experience. Also, I didn't have any problem drilling the holes in the bisque molds using a very fine drill bit.
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2003 11:43 pm
by watershed
An option I just now thought of. Depending on the level of detail, Spray foam (Great stuff). Place a layer of cellophane between the mold and the foam, fill the mold with the foam, let set, remove foam positive, make more plaster (whatever) negatives. Cheap and easy, but maybe not for every application. The foam does take on some good detail, but, for instance a face, I think it would be a little coarse.
Greg