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oops What's up everybody welcome back to the studio my name is Jim and in this
video I'm showing you how to make a simple plaster drop mold using only clay
plaster and a potter's wheel so if you're curious get ready now the cool
thing about making a plaster drop mold on the wheel is that you don't need any
wood boards you don't need any clamps and it allows you to make a nice round
uniform outside to your plaster mold typically with wood boards you're left
with a block and if your form is round and you have all of this wasted heavy
plaster on the corners so this saves plaster and it makes your mold lighter
which is great let's get throwing I have six pounds of clay I think it's gonna be
enough I'm also throwing on top of the plastic bat so I can have a nice smooth
top to my plaster mold
all right so you can see that I have maybe I don't know two inches from the
foot to the top of this dome that I made so I'll fill the plaster all the way up
to the top time to mix some plaster now I am using number one pottery plaster
got myself a nice mask for the plaster dust I'm outside I don't have a vent inside
so it's healthier out here I got a knife this will be quick I'm using the island
method I got about half a bucket of water more than enough for the mold that
I have downstairs now we'll wait for the plaster to soak down below the water
level give it a minute slake off the extra water pour it off
I'll show you in the basement now you can use a spatula for this step you can
use a drill with an attachment which I have but for right now I'm just gonna
use my hand it's a small enough batch I'm okay with that try to get down to the
bottom and flick up air bubbles if you can you'd be surprised how many there
are down there I'm kind of breezing through this plaster mixing if you want
a more in-depth tutorial check out my mixing plaster tutorial I'll put in the
description below and I'll add a card up here for you one trick that's not in the
video if you don't have that special isopropyl alcohol you can kind of tap
this against the ground and that will usually bring some of the bubbles to the top
we are ready to go when I pour this in on be very careful and try not to make
bubbles in there when I pour it I'll pour very slowly against my hand to the
inside wall so hopefully no bubbles form on top of my bowl I have a lot of
plaster left over so I'm going to pour it into one of my extra plastic molds I
use for bats give the wheel a tap level out the plaster make it a little bit
easier to clean later and that's it let it dry for at least a half an hour maybe an
hour depending on how warm the plaster is or how soft it is we'll come back we'll
see how I did it's a little warm right now but I'm gonna pull this off the
wheel take some clay off and see what we got all right let's see what we got I'm
using rubber tools so I don't damage the plaster I should have cut this around
when the wheel was spinning you don't wanna reuse this clay if there's
any plaster in it. Save it for some more molds if you want there we go typically
this is more of a drop mold where you pour liquid slip into here or casting slip
but it's not too deep where I probably could press clay in here I might try
some nerikomi slabs in here the last thing you want to do is clean it up
within the first day while it's still a little bit soft scrape down these sharp
edges sponge it off get all the clay out then let this dry for about a week use a
fan put it outside let it dry completely before you use it now this kind of mold
is considered a drop mold meaning you wouldn't really use it to lay clay
inside you would usually pour casting slip into the mold and then pour off the
extra and take out your piece that is how you make a plaster drop mold using
just the wheel clay and some plaster that's everything thanks for watching
let me know what you think in the comments if you enjoyed this video give it
a like if you haven't already subscribe for some future content I'm Jim and I
will see you in the next video until then take care!