Friday, April 15, 2016

Smash Mold

Johnny smash! Make art!

So, I decided to get a handle on breaking molds before I play with dehydrating and breaking them. I took a donut from a Fischer Price donut stacker and made a mold of that. I broke the mold with a hammer and chisel.

I put the mold in the kiln at 200F overnight to dry it so I could cast clay in it. I encased the mold in a plastic bag and slipcast the clay donut.



I realized that things would move faster if I just cast it in wax. That way I wouldn't have to wait for the mold to dry out. So I embedded the slip cast clay in a plaster block, and bashed the crap out of the block.




The wax I got out was the 2nd iteration of the smash mold, and it was getting difficult to remove the wax due to undercuts. So I was done with the donut.





Then I cast a wax sphere into a plaster block, and smashed that.






The plaster did not completely cure, so it really got fucked up, and I was only able to make a one iteration smash mold of the waxes before it fell apart.


I was more careful on the next smash mold. I waited for the mold to cure, then used a little less brute force in smashing it.


Cast the wax, embedded that in a plaster block, smashed that, and cast a second iteration wax.
1st iteration on the right

I noticed there really isn't much of a change between iterations, but I ran out of time today. I will cast one of the 2nd iteration waxes in a mold and smash next week, but I got a feeling I've found the limits of the heuristic with just plain smashing.

I can, of course, modify the waxes afterwards, and will, even though technically I am violating the rules of spontaneity.

7 comments:

  1. doesn't do a whole lot for me. I remember seeing someone's cast glass object that had flashing on it from the mold cracking during firing. the artist supposedly purposely made her molds weak so they would crack but it just sounded like artspeak to me to cover the fact that she did a poor job of it. but, you know, whatever turns you on.

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    1. I'm getting a bad feeling.I've done this already, just better organized now. I should probably go the other way, and make molds of molds from these. But there is a big gator lurking here.

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  2. This may be a job for 3 D printing

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  3. Hey John, BeeDee here...
    Have you seen the Hydraulic Press Channel? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMDMoNu66_1Hwi5-MeiQgw
    Takes smashing stuff to a new level....
    Great narration and music, too.

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    Replies
    1. I have! Maybe I should put these molds in liquid nitrogen and smash them.

      Delete
  4. BD here -- Another art project doing *Spheres* is here ---> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trancemetals/trance-sphere-oligodynamic-copper?ref=5.jellop-ads.com&utm_source=jellop&utm_medium=facebook&utm_term=5.jellop-ads.com&utm_campaign=CL&utm_content=Trance-CL7

    ReplyDelete