Slip Casting ~

I'm doing some casting again. 

In the past I've experimented with glass casting but have been wanting to return to my "roots" of ceramic casting.  I haven't done slip casting in many years but a long time ago (in what seems like a galaxy far, far, away) I worked exclusively with clay.  Throwing, slab work & slip casting. 

These are good things to know for a glass artist as it's allowed me to make my own molds as well as repair or reproduce molds I like rather than purchasing expensive molds from a dealer.

I was hanging onto a pair of William's first little red boots...sob!

So cute that I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away.

SO....I thought I would make a plaster cast & then slip cast it as a vase!

Mother's day is coming up, right?

A gift to me & my Mommy.

Here's a picture of the first half cast in plaster.  It's coated with Vaseline (used as a release)

& ready for the second pour of plaster.  The boot is coated as well as the plaster.  It's very important to really coat the plaster otherwise the second pour could stick!

This was much more messy than I remembered! 

Yikes!  I need to finish this up this weekend so I can clean the studio get back to production!