Greg T. Johnston on fri 4 feb 00
I heard someone recently talking about using a plaster form to "slip cast" a
piece. I was wondering how this is done. I saw a picture of someone doing
it in one of my books but it wasn't very helpful. How are the molds made?
What kind of plaster should be used? What kind of pieces can you "slip
cast"?
- Greg T. Johnston
Gunnison, Colorado
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Gess on wed 16 nov 05
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone had a porcelain slip casting receipe that they
would kindly share with me. I know that receipes are very precious, so i
would greatly appreciate any help! I have been doing reseach for sometime
now and I cannot find any decent receipes.
Thanks for your help,
Gess
John Britt on wed 16 nov 05
Gess,
Here are a couple:
SIFFEN CASTING SLIP CONE 10
Grolleg Kaolin 40.00
C and C Ball Clay 5.00
Custer Feldspar 26.00
Silica 19.00
Pyrotrol 10.00
Sodium Silicate 0.25 - 0.5 %
Water 40%
SPLETH CASTING SLIP CONE 10
Grolleg Kaolin 35.00
EPK China Clay 7.00
Tennessee #1 SGP Ball Clay 8.00
Custer Feldspar 18.00
Pyrotrol 7.00
Silica 25.00
Sodium Silicate 0.25 - 0.5 %
Water 40%
Try to get "The Definitive Guide to Mold Making and Slip Casting" by
Martin. ISBN: 0-967-562-0-9
Hope that helps,
President of the Glaze Free Trade Society
John Britt
www.johnbrittpottery.com
Pamela Regentin on thu 3 may 07
John Rodgers wrote:<<<jurors/art shows- especially where pottery or handbuilt pieces are
entered - are almost unanimously rejected. My work has been rejected
more times than I care to talk about, and it is a frustrating
experience. It is a prejudice based on total ignorance. All one can do
about it, it seems, is simply try and educate the uneducated and hope
for the best.>>>>>
I'm wondering why this would be if ceramic artists are being taught these techniques (slip casting original designs) at art schools and the jurors presumably have some art education (art schools)? Why would there be total ignorance about slip cast work?
Pam
---------------------------------
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Snail Scott on thu 3 may 07
>Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 00:03:57 -0500
>From: Bunny Lemak
>Subject: Re: Adler bashing,,,,,?Re: Humble Potter on OPRAH
>Ok, I realize this is waay off the subject here, but Lois makes the point
>that slip casting means you still "make" it......so why then when you
>submit work that is slip casted to a juried show, they refuse it because
>it is not handmade?????
>
Many art shows, especially locally-sponsored craft
fairs, get inundated by folks who make work from
commercial molds. Slip casting from the artist's own
molds is, by comparison, very rare indeed. Many show
organizers, even those conversant with ceramics, may
never have heard of an artist using molds from their
own original designs. Thus, no exemption. Why make an
allowance for a nonexistent possibility? Some
organizers can be spoken with and educated, but it's
up to the artist to do that.
-Snail
p.s.
Had a prospective student stop in recently - said she
loved to pour ceramics, so she wanted to take a class
to do more of that for Xmas presents. Told her we
weren't set up for that; we taught handformed claywork.
She'd never heard of ceramics made without a mold, and
wondered how it was even possible. I had to explain that
ceramics could also be made with soft clay that can be
squished and formed like play-doh.
It's all in your frame of reference, I guess.
-S.
John Rodgers on thu 3 may 07
Snail,
For whatever reason(s) there is a strong dichotomy within the clay
world, dividing the slip cast world from that of the conventional
potter. I don't know why this is but it is. In so many places, when you
mention you are a ceramist or work with ceramics - it is automatically
assumed that you slip cast commercially available molds and decorate the
pieces produced. from those molds. This attitude is so prevalent that it
makes me want to scream and shout, wave my arms and thrash about. On the
other side, anyone who presents their own slipcast designs to MOST
jurors/art shows- especially where pottery or handbuilt pieces are
entered - are almost unanimously rejected. My work has been rejected
more times than I care to talk about, and it is a frustrating
experience. It is a prejudice based on total ignorance. All one can do
about it, it seems, is simply try and educate the uneducated and hope
for the best.
I think part of the problem is that the hobby craft industry has made it
so easy for people to do buy and do cutesy hobby stuff that it has just
about obliterated the fact that serious slip cast clay work can come
from the heart, hands and mind of an artist. I believe that part of the
problem is that molds lend themselves to use in mass production as well
as studio art, and somehow virtually everyone has gotten the idea that
anyone who has made a slip cast piece and is presenting it to a gallery,
or show or jury is somehow "cheating"! Nothing could be further from the
truth.
I always like to refer to my favorite porcelain artist whom most have
never even heard of - Edward Marshal Boehm, of Trenton, NJ. He died
iaround 1975 but his wife continued his studio operation and today she
has a huge operation with some 200 employees. But back in the day -
Boehm did his own work, and it was fabulous. Nixon took two of Boehm's
porcelain swans as a gift to the People of China. They loved them. And
the swans were slip cast porcelain.
Boehm also designed and produced his now famous piece called
"Sugarbirds" ( he kept an aviary". The mold set weighed 6000 pounds -
yes- 6000 pounds - and made hundreds of small porcelain pieces that had
to be assembled, chased, re-detailed, assembled to the larger piece and
then fired without cracking. And finally china painted and fired again.
Incredible work. But in todays environment, I doubt if he could even get
his work through the door of a show if he was a new artist and didn't
already have a reputation.
So slipcasting has become the stepchild of the ceramic world, and it
should not be the case. There are forms and art pieces that cannot be
produced any other way. There is always the debate about "handmade" vs
non - and it is a rediculous debate. From my view, it is the finished
medium that counts. You will never get a beautiful bronze statue working
hot metal with the hands - you get bad blisters at best. Nor can you get
beautiful china painted porcelain sculptures like Boehms if you do not
use molds. Granted, they can all be made in a factory with hundreds of
workers handling the work, and the individuals work gets lost along the
way. But give credit where credit is due. If the artist did all his own
work - from design to finished work on the pedestal for everyone to
admire - then give him credit. Don't lump him/her into the commercial
world and summarily reject his work as unworthy. For one person to take
a piece of work from design to finihed slipcast art piece - that is a
pretty piece of work, and should be rewarded at minimum with access to
display in the usual art venues.
Regards.
John Rodgers
Chelsea, AL
Snail Scott wrote:
>> Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 00:03:57 -0500
>> From: Bunny Lemak
>> Subject: Re: Adler bashing,,,,,?Re: Humble Potter on OPRAH
>>
>
>
>> Ok, I realize this is waay off the subject here, but Lois makes the point
>> that slip casting means you still "make" it......so why then when you
>> submit work that is slip casted to a juried show, they refuse it because
>> it is not handmade?????
>>
>>
>
>
> Many art shows, especially locally-sponsored craft
> fairs, get inundated by folks who make work from
> commercial molds. Slip casting from the artist's own
> molds is, by comparison, very rare indeed. Many show
> organizers, even those conversant with ceramics, may
> never have heard of an artist using molds from their
> own original designs. Thus, no exemption. Why make an
> allowance for a nonexistent possibility? Some
> organizers can be spoken with and educated, but it's
> up to the artist to do that.
>
> -Snail
>
> p.s.
> Had a prospective student stop in recently - said she
> loved to pour ceramics, so she wanted to take a class
> to do more of that for Xmas presents. Told her we
> weren't set up for that; we taught handformed claywork.
> She'd never heard of ceramics made without a mold, and
> wondered how it was even possible. I had to explain that
> ceramics could also be made with soft clay that can be
> squished and formed like play-doh.
>
> It's all in your frame of reference, I guess.
>
> -S.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
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>
>
>
John Rodgers on fri 4 may 07
I don't really know why this is. I am not an academic nor in any way
connected with academcia. Only by what I read do I get a glimpse into
the academic side of the teaching of ceramic arts in schools. My sense
of it is that the academic world for the most part focuses on "art" -
whatever that means - and much of what else is to be found in the world
of ceramics in the way of "how to" is left out. While I work
principally as a studio "artist" my focus is probably more on production
and production methods than most. And from my experience over time in
that regard, people that come to my shop that are potters or working in
other types of ceramic work are blown away by what I have going on. Like
I throw on a wheel, make molds, do some slip casting, etc. Many who come
to see me have. But when I ask if they have ever operated a plaster
wheel, I am asked "What's that?" When asked if they know what a
block-and-case mold is I get blank stares. It just seems to me that a
lot is missing in art programs.
Maybe Vince P or others involved in teaching in a formal post high
school setting can address this. I hope they will. I would like to know.
In addition to the fact I feel that the scope of ceramics for students
is being shorted, I also feel there is a big chunk of the Ceramics pie
that is missing because of the attitudes that I have encountered.
Regards,
John Rodgers
Chelsea, AL
Pamela Regentin wrote:
> John Rodgers wrote:<<<> jurors/art shows- especially where pottery or handbuilt pieces are
> entered - are almost unanimously rejected. My work has been rejected
> more times than I care to talk about, and it is a frustrating
> experience. It is a prejudice based on total ignorance. All one can do
> about it, it seems, is simply try and educate the uneducated and hope
> for the best.>>>>>
>
> I'm wondering why this would be if ceramic artists are being taught these techniques (slip casting original designs) at art schools and the jurors presumably have some art education (art schools)? Why would there be total ignorance about slip cast work?
>
> Pam
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
> Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
>
Vince Pitelka on fri 4 may 07
Pamela Regentin wrote:
> I'm wondering why this would be if ceramic artists are being taught these
> techniques (slip casting original designs) at art schools and the jurors
> presumably have some art education (art schools)? Why would there be total
> ignorance about slip cast work?
Pam -
I can appreciate the question, but there is no total ignorance about
slip-cast work. There is the full knowledge that slip-cast work is not
handmade, unless the slip-cast process has been used to make components that
are then altered and assembled to make the finished product, in which case
the finished product is not slip-cast. There is no way to defend slip-cast
work as handmade, when the maker takes a mold off a handmade original, and
then produces multiples form that mold, with only some cleaning up of the
seams. Such a slip-cast piece is not handmade by any stretch of the
imagination. It is dishonest to offer such slipcast work as handmade. Such
work is mass-produced, and to offer it as handmade dilutes the value and
significance of truly handmade work. This subject has been discussed and
clarified on Clayart many times in the past, and I suppose it will cycle
around repeatedly in the future.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
Nancy Udell on sun 20 jul 08
Hi Tony, The molds were dry -- a week in new mexico sun... Thanks.
Nancy Udell
Santa Fe, New Mexico
505.984.9907
www.clayandcolor.net
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