Randy McCall on sun 31 dec 06
For those that may be interested.
I recently purchased a 14" hydro-bat plate mold. No instructions came with
it and it was my first experience using a mold. The plate mold fits on the
wheel and I thought that I could just center a piece of clay like I normally
do and press the clay down on the mold. When I did this the plate stuck to
the mold.
Too much water made the clay stick. Clay was also reused clay that was very
soft. Had to scrap the clay off the bat as it would not come off.
To get it to work I rolled out a round slab about the side of the mold (clay
straight from bag), laid it over the mold and pressed down to shape the
bottom. Cut off excess. No water. Plate came right off the next day.
Plate has a low flare that I would probably have trouble with if I just made
it on the wheel. Nice. Not much good though if you are wanting to make a
lot of plates at one time. Takes awhile for the plate to pop off, but it
really looks good (shape).
14" plate usually takes about 5lbs of clay.
I also bought a number of 14" hydro bats. Look forward to using them. Will
try making plates from the flat hydro bats.
Randy
South Carolina
Pottery Web site
http://members.tripod.com/~McCallJ/index.html
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