Heather Mae Erickson and Tip Toland

Yesterdy was sad because we had to say goodbye to guest artist Heather Mae Erickson.  Boo hoo!  This is the plaster mold I learned how to make during her stay at Fresno Summer Arts Program.  We learned so much, I hope I took good enough notes and can remember it all. 

This is a one part plaster drop-out mold.  I started this one by making a simple free form cottle out of clay to hold in the plaster.  As soon as the plaster set up and the mold was still soft I removed the clay and proceeded to file and sand the sides using surforms, drywall screen and wet and dry sand paper until the surface was nice and smooth.  Next, I soaped it with Murphy's Oil soap and built another cottle around this positive and poured in some more plaster.  I was worried that I wouldn't get out the positive but just like that, it slipped out like it was supposed to.  Yeah! 

I did completely mess up this negative mold, however, when I tried to cast a mother mold.  It had been drying for slip casting when I decided I would make a mother mold and even though I soaped it up, the plaster stuck to it and I couldn't get it out.  I think I was supposed to do this step either when it was still wet or with shellac on it since it was dry.  Oh, well.  Now I know!  I'm going to try to make another one if I have time. 

This is the first one part drop-out mold Heather taught us how to make.  The important lesson here was learning how to make nice straigth sides and it was an excellent tutorial that required a lot of attention to detail.  Great for the perfectionist in me!  This mold I have actually been slip casting and I am excited by the multiples concept.  I will make a bunch of these forms which will allow me to play around with arranging them in different groupings. 

Our next guest artist, Tip Toland, arrived last night and we spent today learning how to sculpt the human head. Time to get some shut eye.  I want to get an earlier start tomorrow.  I have been staying up way too late laughing and having a good time with new friends.  But wait, I have to Facebook first!  Lol.