Very fresh and brief and to the point, Jim. No messin' around, or long, dull silences while your audience watches you do mundane things. You get it done! I learned some things. Thank you!
Thank god - have spent whole morning working out plaster to water ratios using a (helpful) mix of imperial and metric charts, having always used your more feel-y method. I mean, I don't want to be a gold medal plaster caster, I just need a couple of moulds. You have rescued my confidence levels, thank you!
Glad I could help! I do think that measuring plaster is better but it has diminishing returns the more precise you try to be in my opinion. I don’t need to be a plaster master. Maybe just a bronze medalist ;)
Thank you Jim. Great video. I have a few coffee shops and looking at making my own cups and saucers for the shop. I've bee looking for plaster mold recipe and your one is the best I've see so far. Thank you.
It's nice to have an instruction video that doesn't digress. You get straight to the point. I often lose interest if instruction videos become too convoluted.
This worked out awesome! I have always used or tried to use "precise measurements", and it has taken so much time that I rarely want to do. Not now! Thanks for the tips and tricks and easy to follow steps.
About a year ago I actually did a precise measurement and the island method side by side just to see and I kid you not it was within one handful give or take.
I re-did my classroom wedging table and a couple of portable ones for my AP students a while ago and spent so much time with measurements, I wished I would have seen your method. Came out just the same a way easier! instagram.com/p/BVdhMA_nxHB/?igshid=1f42rq2j6643r
Informative video I was searching for plaster videos for making vase your video help me a lot I will try to make vases to make a perfect vase video on my channel thanks a ton
bialtawfiq walnajah aldaayim fi alhayaat kuliha Good day, hello, great work, good content. I wish you good luck and lasting success in all of life ❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍
Jim this was the easiest plaster mixing and pouring and even trimming video ever, thank you! Question, I made various molds in different thickness from 1” up to 5” thick. How long will this take to dry? Thank you!
Good work Jim. How about making a better shaped mould out of wood, and produce a slab thats large enough, such as 900 x 600? , A recessed dish shaped side is great for just pouring in really liquid recycled clay.
Is the reason that people use plaster for molds (as opposed to clay bisque molds) because it is cheaper and less work? Or is it because it is more absorbant?
Thanks. To be clear though, there are people out there who are much more exact with their plaster mixing. Molds for drying out clay are different than molds for slip casting and you can complicate things as much as you want. For people for working 50/60 hours in a studio each week those small changes for exactness do make a difference and do matter. but for a beginner or even a casual multi maker the island method works really well.
why would you need to put the plaster in a kiln/oven? but your tips are useful I often worry about the consistency of the plaster when I pour it, its not always an exact science when to pour it.
Thanks man!! I followed your clay extruder video and found it very enjoyable. I was so excited to see that you made a video on making a drying plaster, since that's my next project. I've been so worried that I would mess it up, but with Jim at my side, how can I go wrong??
Hey Jim. Quick question. I made one plaster mould roughly 2 inches thick and it set to dry very quickly in one day. No problems. I bought another BIG bag and this time it''s taking days to dry It's a mushy mess. Don't know what I'm doing different. Is this plaster old? It was all clumpy and I did have to break it down? My studio isn't too humid either. I'd love your input on this. All the best.
Clumpy plaster is a sign of old or older plaster. Those clumps are small parts that have already activities from moisture over time. In my experience I’ve always had old plaster dry to quickly. But if it had a lot of clumps it’s possible so much of it was already activated that it won’t set. Assuming you used the same water method/measuring it must be the old plaster.
I don’t think it would hold up in the kiln. Usually those glass slump molds are made out of ceramic and then coated with some kind of white “non stick” material. I have limited experience with slumping though.
You can use normal plaster but it’s not as durable. It will chip more or in the case of molds, especially pretty molds, it’s more likely to crack/break. I honestly thought it didn’t matter so I made a mold with normal plaster and broke it on the first try.
Could this plaster be used to create a mother mold for a latex statue mold? I use the latex molds for concrete statues/figures and they usually have a fiberglass mother mold to help keep the proper shape when the latex mold is filled with wet concrete until it hardens. Without the mother mold, some of the larger pieces wind up misshapen, as in my mermaid has a hunchback. Nothing against hunchbacks, but I can not sell it like that.
If it was thick enough I suppose it could serve as a mother mold depending on how large of a cast you’re making. But plaster can chip and there’s dust which I feel like could easily get into your casting material
There are all kinds of guides online that have worked for me. Honestly I use the island method in this video most often though. I've compared that to weighing it out and it's near identical. If I make a set of molds I measure/weigh but I can't recall off hand what worked best the last time.
A couple of ways. We usually have a lot of paper towels in the trash from class. If there’s not a ton of water I’ll pour it in there and towels absorb it. If the water isn’t too “plastery” I’ll pour it in the sink but we have bins that catch solids so when we clean them the plaster gets cleaned out too. The trick is not to have too much extra water so you avoid that problem in the first place.
Hi! Thank you for all your videos! I have a beautiful pumpkin that I’d love to reproduce. Could you tell me if I should apply Vaseline on it and if it is possible to make an entire mold in one container or if I have to do one side first and then the other separate? Thank you!
Vaseline or even dish soap will help release. And you’ll need a two part mold. Obviously a little trickier than a drop mold. Depending on how deep the grooves are you might want to make it 3 parts.
Even with a fan I usually give a plaster mold a week to dry. A few days seems to quick. If it’s more than 3 inches thick anywhere it may take longer. I don’t have any experience painting on plaster but when it doubt let it dry for longer.
@@CeramicJim Thank you so much for your videos Jim :) I live in the Dominican Republic, located in the Caribbean. Do you think since there is ALOT of sunlight here, that it helps to just put them out beneath the noon sun? Many thanks.
Well when you use plaster for ceramics and pottery it’s strong enough. You also wouldn’t want that stuff on the surface of plaster because it wouldn’t be smooth. If you’re talking about plaster for walls it’s different
Hey Jim thanks for taking the ridiculousness out of mixing plaster I watch each other channels and they're using all these formulas and it just is nauseating. For one thing plaster x exactly like flower if it's a humid day or if you live in a humid area you can throw any kind of recipes read out the window because they're not going to work. I mix it using a message that's even perhaps simpler than yours I simply whisk it if it's a small amount until it's like pancake batter a little thinner pancake batterand that's it I'm done I can literally mix up a gallon of the stuff then 3 minutes. I really hate when people over complicate things and hang charts all over the place complicating their lives. If I had to use measurements and formulas for everything I did it would no longer be a hobby it would be homework. I worked after school when I was a kid in a small shop it was called little Tim's plaster Arts in a suburb of Detroit. it doesn't take long to glance over the molds that you have to fill an estimate how much plaster you have to mix up. And let's face it it's dirt-cheap if you mix too much you can literally throw it in the garbage and not really worried about it
You’re welcome! I recently tried weighing out plaster for the first time and when I was done it was exactly when I would stop for the island method 🤣. Don’t overthink your plaster.
I have used plaster molds for one time uses for making glass sculptures but they crumble after. I’m not sure how high you can bake before it deteriorates.
Fully? For what I made in the video, a few days in dry weather with a fan. If it’s in a humid basement, in our current Midwest humidity it could take a week or more.
I’m not familiar with that kind of crab. Complex 3-D creatures are hard because it usually required 2 or more parts. The more parts the more complex. I haven’t made a video for multiparty molds but I think that’s what you should search for. 2 part molds
2:48 That "sponge" isn't a sponge, it's "Scotchbrite". It is VERY abrasive. There are different grades of Scotchbrite, ranging from very soft to very aggressive.
Well the brand name is “Scotchbrite”. What is its title if not a sponge? You need that aggressive “grit” in order to make any progress smoothing your mold.
How do you know what final volume you are going to end up with if you just put water randomly in a bucket? Will a "1/4" bucket of final plaster fill your mold? Is it too much and you just waste the rest? Your "island method" is just as arbitrary... and pardon me - ridiculous. It only works for you because you have a feel for it. Doing this blindly is just a recipe for wasting plaster.
This was an awful tutorial. He didn't even measure anything. I tried it the way he showed and the plaster set up before I could even pour it. For reference, it's supposed to be 10:7 plaster to water. USE A SCALE if you want to do this properly.
These are terrible suggestions and will result in bad plaster molds AND bad for your health. Don't get plaster on your hands and don't get Vaseline in your plaster. For slipcasting, your plaster must be more precise and consistent than the results you will get with either the island or dry lake method. Precisely measure your water and plaster in a 7 to 10 ratio, sprinkling the plaster into the water evenly instead of just in the middle. Stop thinking you're smarter than the tens of thousands of plaster users who came before you.
