Mold makers shop

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Everyday since I have been at the Pottery Workshop I have visited the mold makers shop. Located just across the street from the residency, it is a quick walk over to have molds made. Maggie comes with me to help with translation and it is interesting to see the mold makers talk about how to make molds of the things I bring over. I drop my item off in the afternoon and by 4:00 the next day I can pick up a beautifully crafted and completely functional mold.

They work in a tightly spaced room, the floor is covered in plaster and there are molds stacked everywhere. It seems like there are 3 men that make molds and one man is the master mold maker. One man weighs and puts the plaster into a machine to mix it. There is also a man just making prototypes out of oil clay and will make a mold of this to get a plaster prototype to eventually make a slip cast mold.

The first day I dropped off a pair of deer feet that I found on a gun rack at flea market in the U.S. The mold maker worked quickly to set the mold up and used thin pieces of glass and string to hold everything together to get it ready for plaster. I have made my own molds before and it was interesting to see these mold makers use less sophisticated materials to make a super slick and professional slip casting mold.

When I picked up my deer feet, I dropped off about 5 pairs of chicken feet that I picked up at the open market. The chicken feet lady also sold lots of fresh eggs in a variety of colors, beiges, whites, greens and small speckled ones. She was extremely friendly and thought it was funny that I was buying them. Chinese chicken feet are a lot smaller than American chicken feet. She asked Maggie if I ate them and also asked if I was Chinese because I looked different. I have been getting that everywhere and that didn't happen at all when I traveled to China in 2006.

The mold maker only made me 3 pairs of chicken feet molds. The power goes out frequently during the summer months in Jingdezhen and he said it was so hot and the chicken feet got so stinky. I just recently poured Super White Casting Slip in the molds and the feet came out amazingly detailed and unlike my chicken foot mold that I made, all the toes and nails remain intact when I remove it from the mold.

The next day I dropped off clay eyebrows that I made in the studio. I found at a beauty store plastic templates of eyebrow shapes to use to draw/paint on your eyebrows. They have names like glamourous, delicate and classic. I hope to cast these soon and china paint patterns on them.

After seeing the quick turnaround, I started making my own clay prototypes in the studio. I have always been influenced by the framing shapes found in Chinese pottery. Within these shapes there will be scenes painted of nature or gods so I decided to make three dimensional wall plaques referencing these shapes. Picked these up on Saturday and like all the other molds, I took them to the public kiln to place underneath it or on the sides of the kiln to dry them out.

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Photos

Mold maker shop
I don't think they clean very often.

Mold maker man
Setting up the deer feet and getting it ready for plaster.

Finished mold
The deer foot was a 3 part mold and has great detail.