CNC Infomation System: slip casting

This post is an update to my earlier post on slip casting 3D printed forms. It contains some of the new designs I'm working on and some pictures of the earlier finished pieces.

I've gotten some of the first pieces glazed and fired. The 3D print is on the left. The first glazed/fired sample is on the right. They shrink (about 11-12%) during the first firing. The top gets sanded flat making them smaller still.

Glazing

The first step after firing is to rinse them off. The first firing leaves some residue and you want a clean surface for the glaze to adhere well.

The next stage is to put some wax on the bottom of the pieces so they don't get any glaze there which would stick them to the kiln shelf:

I've come to learn that it's better to put a "foot" on the form. In this way you can glaze all the way to the bottom of the visible form - the foot will hold it up keeping the glaze off the kiln shelf.

I really wanted to experiment with the glazing. At the Ann Arbor Art Center, this is how the glazes are stored - 5 gallon buckets with a brush to stir them up. The solids settle out and need to be mixed back in - it takes a few minutes for some that haven't been used in a while:

The vases get dipped using tongs. The vase in the rear has two dips which overlap. So there will be three different colors. The vase in the front is a solid color from a single dip. Once the glaze has dried it's easy to smooth out the bumps and drips you see. You can also fill in the areas where the tongs hit by just rubbing adjacent glaze into the holes.

Waxing, dipping, brushing, drizzling...

Here are some of the finished pieces:

New Designs

I've also been working on some new designs. The first ones are simple two part molds. This one is shown in the 3D printer at Taubman College Fab Lab.

Here's the printer (on the right):

This is going to be a mug. Quite large in anticipation of the shrinking.

Molds in progress... starting to add the clay to support the form. Note the extra clay around the lip of the cup. This allows the slip cast form to be higher than the final part. It can then be sanded down flat to get it to touch the points at the top of the design. That's necessary because the slip cast form is often uneven at the very top. This also seals the cup against the cottle board so no plaster can flow in.

Fully embedded in the clay. Need to seal the vertical edges and it's ready to pour.

First half done - very crisp detail:

Here's the first one just out of the mold. After it hardens a bit I need to fix the seams, sand the top edge down, and clean it up.

Here are a few of the originals and the new forms ready to bisque fire. I've found a card scraper is really good at shaving the dry clay into a flat plane - perfect for cleaning up the seams:

Here are three after glazing:

Here's another design - about 7.5" tall. It was printed at Shapeways. The Shapeways PLA prints are a little crisper than the ABS prints at Taubman. I actually prefer the ABS plastic for slip casting though. They are harder and clean up easier.

I added a foot after printing (a scrap piece of cherry glued on). Doing this after the printing is better because the print won't require support material at the bottom - the foot would require a large cantilever of the form outside the foot:

This one needs a three part mold. Here are the set-up for the three mold parts and the result:

So the form is buried more than half way - keeping about 120 degrees of the form exposed to the plaster:

Next another third of the form is blocked off. This is ready to pour:

Set up for the final pour which completes it:

The three resulting parts:

Some more pieces getting fixed up for bisque firing - the three piece mold ones take a fair amount of work:

And after bisque firing:

One in bright blue and another in a green/blue:

Belle Kogan Slip Cast Forms

I went to a small exhibition at the University of Michigan of the slip casting work of industrial designer Belle Kogan (1902-2000). Here are some pictures of the work. These pieces are from the collection of Bernard and Barbara Banet of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I love the geometric aspect to some of these pieces, in particular her Prismatique line. These are all two or three piece molds. I find these pieces very inspiring.