thefinal

cnc milling the mould

make plaster mould by pouring

identical modular plaster moulds

production process final selection:slip casting

formal studies,production test and samples using by the techinique

applying non-porous thinges on the plast mold

applying chemical liguid

the slip might not attach to the non-porous- paint covered area, which may cause holes.

the texture on the slip wall reminds me of this design piece

the final result: the acrylic paint may be slightly porous as well, and thus it also can cause a thin layer of slip wall rather than create holes like what I speculated previously. and because the thickness of the slip wall is uneven in this case, it seems prone to be broken during the process of releasing.

the final result:
I have to break the slip wall to pull out the cup, the acrylic paint on the plaster mould also unwantedly are adhered to the slip casted cup.

applying chemical liquid, on the plaster mold, the brushed part on the mold may peel and naturally got defectives, which can be interesting patterns.

I applied glaze on plaster directly, sadly, nothing happened.

I made the mould out of dense form by the milling machine.

then cast it by the plaster

during the casting process, there was a try out to see if plaster can be relieved without grease. The answer of the experiment is yes meanwhile the grease can provide more brush texture on the plaster mould.

the final output slip casted by the plaster mould is already a convincing plate.

in the ceramic workshops, there are always a few buckets filled with a great amount of dry and hard plaster, which is because some people made too much. while I came across them, I felt like the texture on it visually interesting, which was created by people to test if the plaster get thick and hard already by their fingers.

can i use this marginalised left over to make something?

made the mold for it, by pouring extra liquid plaster around it

the final output slip casted by the plaster mould is already a convincing plate.

for splashing plaster onto the plaster mould, it is important to wet the plaster mould first, otherwise it will get cracked.

and the shape of the splashed texture is also quite crucial to manipulate, otherwise later on it will have diffculty to seperate the plaster mould and the leather hard clay.

the final output slip casted by the plaster mould is already a convincing cup.

can I assemble the moulds in different ways to creat distinct forms?

then I tried it out and found out it also can shape triangles and rhombus.

can I change the scale and volume of the final output by stacking the plaster moulds?

it is more technically challenging, i flunked the first stacked piece.

identical multi-facet plaster moulds

can I make other shaped plaster mould,which each facet also can be interchangeble?

making silicone moulds for the 3d printed objects, then making the plaster objects by the silicone moulds.

then polish the plaster objects

It is technically difficult to make each plaster object complete identical because many facts can affect it such as the timing of pouring the plaster. It requires a great deal of precision.

when I assembled them, i noticed the gaps among each other was really worrying, because slip might leak out while I pour it in.

I assumed the gaps was created by me polishing them, so then I cast six new oneswithout polishing the surface. yet it turned out there is still gaps.

I have to move on and have a go to see if it will work.

loads of works for trimming and polishing, yet this gives an aura of handcrafting to the object.

There were many failures, which the pieces got cracks while pulling out of the plaster moulds.

The artisan at the ceramic station told me, it is because the angular shape in my mould is really hard to release.

I was trying to create small cuts or holes to stop the cracking while firing, which also created interesting patterns.

six these plaster objects plus a bottom plaster plate are my plaster mould, every time while slip casting, I can change the facet of the plaster object, so I can get different results everytime

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the glossy colour from the 1260 degree firing seems to be competing with the form of the object. I may choose only bisqueware for the final outcome because it reveals more qualities of the form, which the attribute of the production technique can bring out.

intervening the plaster moulds-making

In the whole process of slip casting, making plaster moulds is always only for replicating the form of the casted objects. With my intervention onto plaster mould making in the production process, I aim to subvert the situation and empower the plaster moulds, switching them from the position of being a passive cameo to a more leading and dominant role, which enables them to serve as an instrument not only to duplicate but also to shape the form of the final output. In my final intervention, I created multiple identical plaster objects in the form of hexagonal pillars, in which there are three-dimensional patterns on each side, as my modular plaster moulds.

due to the tessellating trait of the hexagonal shape, I can assemble these hexagonal pillars in different ways to create different hollow forms in which I can pour the slip in. And also, while every time slip casting, I can change the form by selecting or altering each facet of the modular plaster moulds. This gives more autonomy for slipcasting in a playful way.

upon conducting the practice-based research, apart from solving the technical challenges, I have been also consistently investigating how many possibilities these modular plaster moulds can create and what the limitations they have. The essence of the design concept is that these modular plaster moulds generate multiple formal variations, and it as well introduces an insight as to how to learn to create possibilities even in limitations.

My final realised works are a myriad of sculptural objects, which can function as small decorative storage boxes or vessels. The practice-based research provides a new and distinctive way of designing the form for objects, which is by the means of intuitively “mixing and matching”; hence, the form of the final outcome sometimes is surprising.