Are you one of those people who is frustrated with
trying to produce your own
product? You know that if there was just a way to mass produce your own
ideas, you
just might be able to get your designs off the ground.
After investigating, you
decide there's just no way because in order to do this high volume
producing, you
first have to pay a mold maker big bucks just to
get started.
You look at the fact that you don't havea workshop,
like it seems other folks manage to have, you don't have a wad of money
to invest.
So now what? You spend hours in the bookshop only to discover the only
available
books are so expensive and they talk about things you've never heard of
much less
interested in. All you want to know is how to make
a mold with no space at all, no
fat wallet and no idea where to start.
Better yet, maybe you already know all about ceramics.
You've been
to the workshops and followed the teachers directions explicitely. You
have all the
proper tools and consider yourself pretty well educated in poured
ceramics. Did you
know your head was filled with wives tales?
Would you care to hear how I did it? I mean, the hard
way? Nothing ever
came easy for me so I know what you're thinking and feeling. I promise
you that if
you even have a lap, to work on and $20 to spend on materials, you can
do your own
designing and mold making. That, of course, is for poured ceramics or
plaster products.
If you want to get into resins, for sure that's going to take more
money to get started.
But consider this! Whatever you can make from resin, you can make it
out of plaster.
Anytime you can get away with using plaster instead of clay or resin,
your costs
will be about 10% of what clay or resin takes.
A year after getting knee deep
into poured ceramics, I was kicking myself for not trusting my
instincts and going
all the way with nothing but plaster products. You see, the world of
plasters is
deeper and wider than most think and you can do amazing things with
that stuff.
As a child,
I spent many hours puttering in the backyard with found clay. I even discovered I
could form a bowl out of ground sandstone and it would hold together after it dried.
As I got older, I learned from the indian ladies. We weren't rich and I never asked
about the possibility of seeing one of my pieces fired so the truth is, I never discovered
firing until I discovered the world of poured ceramics when I was 40 years old.
I
was born artistic, never went to college, never exposed to the art world. You see,
back in my day nobody was offering free money to go to college. There were troubles
in the home and the last thing on my mind was my own future. I was busy surviving.
At
the age of 30, my father dreamed up a fantastic project and asked if I could reproduce
a miniature 'jawbone of an ass'. Since I had no idea how to start, I wrote to my
grandmother who had been working with plaster products for years. She wrote back
with instructions and I went on the hunt for materials, I had never heard of. By
letter, my grandmother taught me how to make a rubber mold using liquid latex. My
first taste of mold making.
This being my first attempt, and working alone,
those first molds were (to say the least) crude but I sure turned out replicas of
a jawbone. I borrowed a neighbors yard ornament (a jawbone) and sketched it then
went looking for modeling clay which I used to form an exact replica. Then I built
that mold, just like grandmother instructed. Somehow, it all worked out. And on the
kitchen table, mind you.
Years went by with no thought of those days, when
I had learned a marvelous new trick. I was 40 years old when I first walked into
a ceramic shop and was just overwhelmed with all the greenware. This was a little
shop in south Dallas that produced high volumes of greenware for all the other shops.
Don't you know, the shelves were crammed.
Believe it or not, I was embarrassed
to admit I'd never touched the subject of poured ceramics and had no idea how to
approach it. I selected a gourgeous little piece, so intricate and detailed simply
because I love a challenge. Then I went snooping around for some instruction. The
only thing I could find, was the Duncan catalog and from glancing through that, I
got the idea that maybe, just maybe, it was 'underglaze' I was looking for.
I
found the jars of paints labeled 'underglaze' and bought the colors I thought I might
use. According to the catalog, these were the colors one could mix and that's all
I needed to know. I had no idea what the differences were between 'underglaze', 'glaze'
and 'stain'. It's a good thing I accidently started off with the right thing.
Looking
at the tools, I had no idea what was proper so I just went by instinct. Something
called 'cleaning tool' sure sounded safe. I bought that and a small sponge and took
my new found treasure home. My background being 'bend the clay to your demand', I
set about carefully cleaning, scared to death I'd do something wrong and not knowing
that my carving out the ears and eyes was actually a 'no-no'. I worked on that piece
for a week, after work each day.
Owner
of WildCat Molds of Albuquerque,NM from 1991-2002. Written from my own experience/expertise,
gained knowledge from the plaster manufacturers, and many years of successful use
of my own techniques.
Each booklet contains illustrations. The Mold Making for Ceramics
booklet also contains photos of my own actual work in progress, detailing a difficult
figure. Unlike most publications on the subject, I include shortcuts and 'make-do's'.
Not everyone has sufficient equipment or space. My techniques can be performed on
the kitchen table, if need be.
"Ceramic Pouring" $14.95 free shipping
The Hard Copy is Temporarily
Unavailable.
For the time being please accept the e-file version, it
certainly costs less :)
E-book is only $9.95
I need your help. I'm getting conflicting reports about the traffic counts on
these pages. Since I'm being charged for some of it, I needed to find a way to
obtain a reality check. If you would take the time to sign the guest book, it
will help me in huge ways. Thank you.
cont:
Mind you, I was the clumsy idiot who had
never been taught what this stuff was all about. All I knew was from my childhood
and years of making pots. I didn't know if I had screwed it all up or if I had somehow
managed to pass under the 'she knows her stuff' bar.
After having returned
the piece for my first experience at seeing something (anything) fired, I arrived
to pick up the piece only to discover that it was sitting smack dab in the center
of a large table with a bunch of ladies sitting around, working on their ceramic
pieces. I wondered if that was mine. I asked about my bisque and was told , "Oh,
I hope you'll forgive us. This piece is so precise, so detailed and exquisite, we
couldn't help but admire it and leave it out where the ladies could use it as a guideline."
Do I really have to tell you what went through my mind?
After that little
bit of praise, I was motivated to try again with another piece.
Then life
happened and I didn't touch ceramics again for another year or two. Some time later,
and during those first months after a horrendous divorce, fearing to be found, I
went underground. In a possition like that, one cannot just go out and get a regular
job without exposing oneself to harm. That's where the education in ceramics and
mold making began.
I had to find a way to support myself and I looked to my
own talents.
One of the first things you'll discover, when you make a move
like this, is that there is completition out there that doesn't want you to know
what they know. This was before all those mold making books started flooding the
market. I had to figure out a lot of things on my own, while hiding the fact that
I had no idea what I was doing.
Then I went to work, helping out at one of
biggest local ceramic shops, just helping them get through the Christmas rush. And
RUSH, they had. I learned to pour 100 huge molds per day, empty them all, reband
and ready for the next day. That little old lady taught me the lesson of my life
and as a result, I wound up being the best pourer in the state.
If you have dreamed of producing
your own ceramics but think it takes a wagon full of money to get it started, then
you need to learn from this little lady. You can do everything, right up to the firing,
for little of nothing. Sure the slip and colors cost money but you don't need a bunch
of equipment. You can start right on your kitchen table. I'll teach you the costly
wives tales and how to get the job done right.
Pouring ceramic molds is
a lot more than just the simple instructions you get from most publications. I reveal
the tips and tricks of the trade, from a mass pourers experience.
I also take
the time to talk about your future in the ceramic business
36 pages illustrated.
Judy's
instruction booklets are small:5 1/2"X8 1/2"
and 32 -40 pages but packed
full of valuable
information, aside from the usual instructions.
Helpful
for the beginner as well as those in the ceramic business. Knowing how to produce
in mass efficiently and how to make your own ceramic molds, is a necessity.
Excerpts from the booklet "Pouring for
Ceramics"
............
Problem molds.
It's time to learn a
whole new term. I call it 'blooping'. What can I say? That's what it sounds
like. It's the 'Coke bottle' affect. You know how, when you turn a bottle with a
narrow neck upside down to drain, you get that bloop bloop sound? Well, in
greenware, that's a deadly sound. It means air is not getting inside as fast as
the slip is draining and it causes a suction which will collapse you wet
greenware. So no Bloops!
Drain at a severe angle until the slip just
about stops, .................If you find yourself with one of those big vases
or bottle shapes, with a narrow neck and there's just no avoiding the 'bloop',
get a straw. Ha. Not to drink with, to........................and work your way
all the way to standing the mold on its head, pour hole
down.........................."
"....................
Don't buy
greenware patch. Make it yourself. Equal parts of
..........................................Keep it in a jar to keep it from
drying out.
Ever wonder where the native american ladies find their clay?
They locate the hard stuff. It looks like rock, when they dig it up and then
grind into powder. I used to grab it out of the river bed of the Rio Grande,
just outside of Albuquerque.
..........................................................Clay like this is
called ‘short’, which means its impossible to form it and have it dry without
cracking. You have to add quite a bit of fine sand and work it
in............"
".............
In the event you're producing large
amounts, its ideal to separate the steps. It's more efficient and if you have a
sloughing helper, its easier to pin point where the wasted time is coming from.
Each worker pulls their assignments off the shelves. One trims while another
sponges. If you're cleaning dry greenware, one trims, one sands and another
sponges. Flats full of greenware, makes it easy to pass along. Flats, as in
those flat boxes canned soda is delivered in. I used to go down to the local
............"
"........Drying and cleaning.
There are two
approaches. 1. from the perspective of the hobbyist. 2. from the perspective of
the mass producer.
From the hobbyists point of view. Let the greenware
dry completely, then trim down the seams with a knife or cleaning tool. Sand
lightly with a........."
cont:
Using that
experience, I went to work for myself, mass producing miniatures and then it expanded
into all kinds of things. Learning how to make the molds, using my own designs, turned
out to be my salvation. The business just kept growing out of my ability to keep
up.
Before long, I was the 'hip pocket' secret of New Mexico. Many of the
successful ceramics producers and artists, got their business off the ground, using
my designing and mold making abilities. They over ran me until I was working from
9AM to 2AM, 7 days a week with no let-up. Finding help, in a business like that,
is just about impossible. I tried.
It was when I took on a business loan to
buy enough equipment, so that I could keep up with the volumes of huge vases and
platters, that the troubles started. My customers were so used to my working for
peanuts that when I tried to raise my prices to cover the growing overhead, they
bailed on me. They hired illegal mexicans, paid them under the table and taught them
things they had learned by watching me. Eventually, I was struggling to survive and
finally just gave up and closed up business.
My own customers who had depended
on me for an edge on the market, who had built empires on my back, who had bought
homes and cars off the growing profits, couldn't thank me by giving me my share.
So
folks, that's where it's at. You can't help others in their own business because
they will eventually turn around and stab you. If you're going to produce ANYTHING,
design it yourself, make your own molds and keep your techniques and designs so close
you sleep with them. Being nice, doesn't pay. That's what I'm here to teach you.
Since
I'm no longer in the business and don't plan to start (I'm too old), I decided to
share with you those things I learned, along with the warnings and hints on how to
market your own product.
Kokopelli