Thursday 17 February 2011

Giant egg planters & my love/hate with porcelain!

I have a thing about eggs at  the moment maybe its with spring "kind of in the air" and with Easter round the corner, eggs and the egg form have been something I want to replicate. I've been experimenting with casting plaster and making two piece slip moulds, but more about that next time as the moulds are still drying and the castings are only preliminary ones.Oh... and keys, have a thing about them too, so I've been playing about with silicone and plaster moulds taking casts of them too. Thats about as far as I've got with the keys, not sure how I will use them or what they will be incorporated into but I'm just playing and seeing where it will go; but I have decided they will be made from porcelain, which leads me onto the love/hate thing. The thing with this material is (anyone who has used it before will aggree I am sure) it has its own limits, about 20% of what I make from porcelain makes it into the kiln and a staggering 80% flops before its dries out, or cracks of just turns into dust long before getting near any heat. That's a staggering failure rate, I realise yet I'm still drawn to its buttery consistency and whiteness.
So after much cursing here are a few of my porcelain cast keys and as you can see many broken ones in the photo aswell, I would say the failure rate is much like the above, so no change there.


My egg planter drying out on the window shelf.

A little slab built pot with a new succulent.

Yes here is the 20%  success  80% failure in progress.
*But cute don't you think?*


The first signs of spring in my garden, crocus poking through all
the dead leaves. I love them at this stage.

6 comments:

  1. I love the keys! I'd love to make polymer clay keys.
    Crocuses are so pretty :)

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  2. Yes polymer clay would probably be easier too, you will have to look out for some vintage keys on your travels. I am going to post a new page on my blog called "kids & clay" where I will be demonstarating how to make simple push moulds with plaster of paris. So check back soon xx

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  3. Hi saw your post on Folksy. now following you.. BeckyDe
    http://beckydecrafts.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Saw your post and am following you. Interesting blog. The keys look great. Looking forward to seeing what you do with them. Linda

    ReplyDelete
  5. You're making some very interesting things..I love the keys...!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. these are lovely. Your planters are great!

    ReplyDelete

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