Mug Posted March 26, 2014 Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 I was wanting to productivly turn about 25# of Standards 600 porcelain into bisqued eyeballs that I will embed into standards 240 paper clay sculptures. If you had to make 100's of porcelain balls, tear drop shapes of various sizes from .25" to 1.125", how would you do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay lover Posted March 26, 2014 Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 For that large #, I would load my wall extruder with the soft clay, put in a round die the size of the larges part, extrude a section. Leave it hanging, sit on a stool under it like I was milking. Then use my thumb ,forefinger and the web of skin between to squeeze off lugs that would have tapered ends from the squeezing off. Then blunt one end to be the larger end of the egg shape, pull the other squeezed end to the smaller end. tamp it to shape, squeeze another........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mug Posted March 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 Thats a cool idea. I was shaping the larger ones over a rounded dowel rod. I have fired solid porcelain balls in the past succesfully up to 1.125", but was concerened about doing that every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted March 26, 2014 Report Share Posted March 26, 2014 Would it be worth the time to make a 2 piece plaster press mold? One mold, several eyeball sizes, make them solid. You would end up with matching sizes of eyeballs that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mug Posted March 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 I made about 400 by hand so far, and they are OK. I hand rolled the smaller ones in the palm of my hand...It feels like water boarding at 350. A two part press mould would certainly be worth it, at least for the larger round sizes. I might be able to make something fit an arbor press. Something that would squish a sprue out the back of the mold as the clay compresses. I would also have to accuratly measure the clay tha goes into the mould. I have never made anything quite like that on such a small scale, but it would be worth a try. I made a 1/2 spere press mold, the models that I took the molds from varried in quality. Anyone know where you would get good speres in different diameters to make a mold from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 Anyone know where you would get good speres in different diameters to make a mold from? Glass or plastic beads with the holes plugged with clay, marbles, ball bearings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mug Posted March 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 Those would be the items that varried in quality..there are seam lines in most of them that compound to make the mold worse...bearrings are nice, the only ones that I found were expensive...I used to have marbles lol...they are often not the correct size. if i could purchase the size needed it would eliminate items that do not work as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbo_heff Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 How about a melon baller ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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