Hyn Patty

Any of you have any tips or tricks to share for reconstituting dried out porcelain slip? It's still a little bit buttery so it's not rock hard. Figured I'd add some distilled water, ball mill it a bit to smoothly remix it, then see if I need to add any sodium slicate but hopefully it'll be just fine. This is the last of my batch I picked up more than ... eh, 25 years ago? I've had it a while. But shouldn't really be any different than reclaiming clay scraps I should think.

My last gallon of Seeley's porcelain slip dried out! Drat. I've had this stuff for the past twenty+ years but not used it in years. When I went to add distilled water it turns out the plastic container was cracked. No wonder it dried out on me! So, chipping it out so I can get it into my Shimpo ball mill jar to remix it until it's buttery smooth again. No pouring porcelain medallions in the studio today. Thankfully, even though Seeley's went out of business long ago, I can still get it from New York Dynamic Porcelain. They bought the rights to Seeley's product line and still make Seeley's porcelain slips and china paints. Thank goodness because this is my favorite porcelain slip and I'm going to need to put in a new order soon.

You are all very sweet, thank you. Nice to have a community where we try to help each other out, share info, and encourage one other. Many I time I've asked for help around here and gotten great input. So I'm glad if I can give a little something back.

Been a while since I posted about this piece. I have been really busy with so many other things. BUT I did get a rubber master cast made of my medallion. I made it using platinum silicone I managed to get on super sale at a much lower price per gallon than usual. Which is good because I needed a few gallons for my projects though the shore hardness wasn't quite as high as I usually use and that has caused me some issues with the Porthos mold reproduction. Anyway, it's not being an issue with the small medallions I am reproducing. Here is the Cob medallion's rubber master and the first production plaster poured. Once I've cleaned it up and it's cured, the plaster is ready to use if I want to pour open mold porcelain pieces or I can make a mold back with pour hold for a little thicker pieces, or pieces with backgrounds if I want to go back and carve into the plaster while it's still soft. So many possibilities! Anyway, this is the time for me to go back in and redetail anything I want to touch up in my plaster while it's still soft and hasn't fully cured and hardened up fully yet. But one of the things I am going to do is clean my rubber masters very well, then box them up again and pour ANOTHER layer of platinum silicone over top, to produce a negative. Once that sets up I'll have a food safe rubber mold I can use for ... *drum roll please* ... casting CHOCOLATES! OK, maybe I'm just a little bit of a nut. But why restrict my mold making for only ceramics? What fun to do your own designs, your own molds for ceramics, /and/ get to eat your cake too! So, I can hardly wait to see this boy cast in white and dark chocolate just for fun! I'll be giving away some of the porcelain medallions at up coming shows as awards this summer but why not /also/ give away some chocolate medallions for awards too?! Hahahaha! Maybe I get a little carried away.

To wrap up my little saga on this first ceramic Porthos - he successfully sold at auction yesterday for more than $1600 and I am quite pleased. Yay! Alas, I am having issues with his mold so there will be no more of this edition forthcoming until I resolve those issues or make an entirely new set of plaster mold pieces. I master molded the original plaster mold pieces using silicone but I ended up using a shore hardness 1 step softer (30A instead of 40) and I'm having problems with the new plasters being warped and NOT fitting back together correctly. Even though the silicone rubber pieces are each in their own mold boxes around the sides (but not the bottoms). Grr. I should have known better! Moral of that story is do NOT be lured by being able to get two gallons of platinum silicone for half the usual price on sale when they are not the correct shore hardness I need. Close, but no cigar. Ah well, maybe I can fix the issue by making simple plaster jacket molds for the bottoms of silicone molds so they can't possibly warp from the weight/pressures of the wet plaster filling them. I think there is a very slight gap there that's sagging so it may end up being an easy fix. Maybe. I'll just have to try it today and see. Meanwhile I have already printed a replacement Porthos of the same size and version to make a new mold from. I made the first mold set to cast him in pieces for testing my bone china slip I'm making from scratch here in studio but I also want to be able to cast him as close to whole as possible for earthenware production anyway, so back to the drawing board with claying up... I'm also working on molding him in a larger version so I may well have the big boy casting before I have this smaller version back into production. One never knows! Murphy's Law always rules whether I like it or not.

Might benefit from a small addition of gum arabic. It's rather fragile and the binder might be helpful.

All right. For an initial test I have mixed up about 1/3 cup white earthenware slip (cone 06-04 that I got locally and ball milled it a few days) and to this I added about a tablespoon of vinegar. Mixed it up and it bubbled a little bit (a lot of the recipes mention vinegar but not sure why exactly). By morning it had settled on top as a clear fluid and the slip had become rather unplastic, sort of more like wet sand than slip. I poured off the excess fluid. Then I added about 1/2 a teaspoon soda ash and mixed it in well. It tried to form a hard crust so I had to put it into one of my mortars and use the pestle to grind it smooth again. I have a rather large ball mill but alas, not a little one. Maybe I should make myself a smaller porcelain jar and little balls for just such things ... but I digress! The last thing I added was 1 ml of sodium silicate, mixed well then a touch more. It became very creamy and lost the hint of grittiness. I have no idea how it will preform but now I'm going to test it. Not sure if the vinegar was actually any help at all or not but the soda ash and sodium silicate made sense. I'll let you know how well it works or doesn't. I'm going to test it filling in tiny defects and a crack in a bone china horse sculpture I want to glaze. My initial reaction is it has a good feel, much like the bisque mender I had been using and loved. I can always color adjust afterwards with a little airbrushed opaque white underglaze if needed over it to blend it in before I move onto coloring the piece. Wish me luck! I'll be firing it to cone 04.

And thank you for your kind words. I've been doing equine sculpture and sculpture finish work since 1976, and ceramics since 1984 though I didn't have kilns of my own until 2003. I posted (but forgot that I'm not supposed to) the links but if you didn't already get them, just message me. I want to abide by the rules!

Here is the completed piece all glazed up. All work has been done in the kiln, completed with satin glaze and minimal china painting. The only thing on him that isn't ceramic media are his mane flights which are enameled metal, inset with pins into tiny holes along his neck. Completed to a light dappled grey and with an optional base I have made for him to be affixed to, this piece will be posted to public auction. He measures 3.75" inches tall and will be a unique color and variety in an edition of not more than probably 20 or so variations. Once I have finished editing his photos and he has been sold at auction, I'll add a photo to my gallery album with him standing on his base. Tada! So now you know how I make my equine fine art sculpture in ceramics. This one earthenware but I also work in porcelain and fine bone china.

I did see Kyanite mentioned in a recipe along with sodium silicate on Digital Fire here: https://digitalfire.com/picture/3164 Looks like a cone 6 patch. I mostly do low fire fixes but I do have this one noted for higher fire projects.

Thank you, I appreciate that feedback, Min! You always have great tips and advice to share. I did order some soda ash (just one lb to test) as it's handy for a number of things, but I will keep the baking soda conversion using heat in mind. Very nice, thank you!

Anyone here swap sodium bicarbonate for sodium carbonate? Different PH but baking soda I have seen mentioned to be used in place of soda ash. I might try that for a recipe test making bisque mender as well.

I've also found this one on the Lakeside Pottery website. Anyone tried using this one and loved it? It is also based on using your clay and adding soda ash and sodium silicate. It's for making 1 gallon at a time so I'd need to cut that down a lot for smaller units. I don't have soda ash on hand to try it but I may get some. https://www.lakesidepottery.com/HTML Text/Tips/pottery-magic-mud-magic-water-paper-clay.htm

The one I'm testing now I found on Instagram and is this one and can be fired to whatever the base clay requires that you use: This recipe is for repairing cracked bisque before a glaze firing. add: 1 cup your clay slurry Add: about 1/4 cup shredded toilet paper Add: 1 1/2 TB vinegar. Any vinegar will do. Blend with an emulsion blender stick. Don’t skip this step. It should be the consistency of coarse toothpaste. You can add more paper to make it harder or more vinegar to make it pastier. Pack it into the crack. When it has dried dry sand it smooth. Glaze as usual.

I've been using a commercially made bisque mender for years that I just love. But it's no longer available of course - Coloramics. Sadly I do not know the ingredients to try to duplicate their formula. I've tested several other bisque menders trying to find a good replacement that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I just don't like any of them. Amaco Bisque Fix comes well recommended but it's pricy even before adding in shipping and is a far larger jar than I am likely to ever use up. Most of the other commercially made replacement bisque menders I have been testing shrink WAY MORE than the Coloramics product I had been using. For example: Mayco's Clay Mender is horrible. Shrinks badly and fires to a pink color. So, who has good bisque mender recipes to share? I've found some that use paper clay mixtures, some that use my own clay but adds vinegar or soda ash, or a little glaze (or all three). Low fire to cone 04 will do but up to cone 6 is also nice. Any suggestions you care to share here? Obviously making and testing my own versions is underway right now in my studio and I can make whatever I need practically for free instead of paying $30 for some product plus shipping. Ideally the lower shrinkage the better and I need it to be strong and fire white. I've always been wary of paper clays and concerned about how strong they are after firing since it opens up more voids and is more porous than the original. Also paper clay is a real PITA to get into tiny hair fine cracks. Opening up cracks in bisque ideal but is only feasible under certain circumstances and not in others. Please share your thoughts and recipes. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will benefit from input. Thank you! Once I settle on one that works really well I will be glad to share it here for others to try.

I second Peter's suggestions on this one. I bisque fire all of my porcelains and bone china before I glaze (if I didn't acquire it already bisqued). But then I also tend to use airbrushed underglazes with clear glazes over top so getting the glaze to stick has never been an issue for me. It's not brush applied. As said though, that presents other issues like a ventilated and filtered spray booth and suitable P100 type mask due to spraying silica, etc. But with this form I think you are going to get the distortion without proper supports even in your bisque fire without glaze. I'm not as knowledgeable about pottery though. I work with sculpture so it's a slightly different beast.

Most hobby porcelains fire to mature bisque at cone 6. But I'm with the rest of you - if she doesn't KNOW for absolute certain, I probably wouldn't put it in /my/ kilns. If she's going to be producing several of these maybe she should just get herself a small kiln. A used one if need be, and just learn how to do it herself. She is also going to need to figure out how she's going to support them with props (settles) and they should be made out of the very same porcelain clay if she has enough left. So yeah, maybe more complicated than she realized. A lower soft fire may be wise but it won't make them as nice.

Sounds like you need to get the /air/ tested in your home. Find out what it /is/ that you are smelling. Mold, mildew, sewage, gas, etc? Then you can have a home inspector help you locate the source of the problem. As stated, it may have something to do with a clay foundation or nothing at all, but anything that is a health hazard like that needs to be addressed by a professional quickly who can first give you an air analysis, not guesses. It sounds like you shouldn't even be in the home until you find out what is the issue. Some molds for example and sewage can be life threatening issues. As for the clothes? Until you know what is making the smell you won't know how or if it /can/ be removed. And that is the least of the problem. Good luck with this and I hope you will sort it out quickly!

Not sure if this will work but here's a video of my working on him today in studio. I'd much rather be riding my motorcycle or hiking on this sunny day but I have a show deadline coming up fast next weekend! Underglazing Details on Curio Porthos It is set public on my Facebook page so maybe you can see it. Not sure if I can directly upload a video here though. If you all can't view it let me know and I can see about uploading it to a blog post or something on my website instead.

I also posted this photo of first version 1/9th traditional scale Porthos with the docked tail. This is a roto cast hollow white resin I have cut up for mold making. I'm in the process of using colored oil clays to 'clay up' for pouring those molds in plaster. Once the molds are poured, I test them to make a single casting like the curio bisque at the top of this thread. This allows me to see where the mold is skimming or tearing clay off as I demold so I can trim those edges clean. Tiny undercuts can be skimmed off the plaster mold pieces easily. If there are air bubbles, I fill them with plaster paste or epoxy. If there are details that are too soft, I can go back in and recut them much more sharply in my plaster master mold. Then, rather than continue to use that first mold, I seal it with mold soap and then pour a silicone rubber mold of each plaster piece. This will then allow me to cast as many plaster production molds as I want! As the mold detail wears very rapidly (especially if I am casting porcelains) then I may need to be able to reproduce the mold several times over to keep every piece of my edition super crisp. As usual, this probably belongs in the mold making and slip casting thread...

Thank you! Speaking of Fabio tails... With a really complex tail such as my hairy Pasture Porthos sports I may well need to cut the tail into at least two pieces and have quite a few mold pieces /and/ still have to flood, then redetail, some of the undercuts. Oh well! This boy will be my most challenging piece to mold to date (this is a 3D print that is mirrored to face the other direction and a different size). For now I am cheating. I sent this boy and his larger version off to England to be molded and cast in bone china bisque for me. But I will be playing with cutting one up here in studio and trying to mold that tail myself just for the challenge. BUT at least I know he'll be in production in time for Breyerfest in July even if it takes me a while to mold and cast this version on my side of the pond. For scale I can do pretty much anything I want within the limits of my 3D printers and the quality of my scans. Or in the case of the spider foal - larger than 'traditional' scale because I'm doing that one BIGGER than usual. But 'traditional' scale is what most equine bronzes are normally produced in - 1/9th scale to the real horse. Larger than traditional is usually about 1/6th scale. Classic is about 1/12th, etc on down or on up! Some of these scales are used so often for equine art that they have names (though often more than one name for any given size). Porthos is considered 1/9th scale, which usually is about 7 inches tall. But as he's a draft horse who's taller and larger his scaling down to 1/9th came to 8 inches tall. Of course he'll shrink a bit in each ceramic media, that's just his resin size. If you do internet searches you can find various 'model scales' or 'model horse scales' to compare. 'Venti' scale Pasture Porthos is a little smaller than 'classic' scale at 1/15th is shown with the larger roto cast white resin that is 1/9th 'traditional' scale. Then micros are about 1/40th scale (around 1.5" tall). Curio falls in around 1/20th scale for comparison (not pictured here).

Do you have photos of the Akita or the mold by chance? I don't do the ball and socket thing but nice idea. If I want to move a leg around I'm just going to resculpt it (and possibly make a mold of the leg to cast it for reuse later) and then sculpt the new attachment as needed as well. I've already sculpted and molded some alternate pieces for another neck and leg, and I'm going to do an alternate body that's not so bent so I can do the head and neck in other positions. Just for fun variations! I get bored easily so it is very tedious for me to do the same thing over and over again...

Noted. And sometimes I use IPA - depends which one is handier. I've never had an issue with either one since I literally only use a drop or so in my water spray bottle of the bleach. The generic bleach I buy only lists one ingredient and nothing added for scent. (I also incidentally use it for phytosanitary applications like tissue culture of plant materials.) Yes! This method of cutting up the piece is typical for casting porcelain and bone china in the UK and Europe. Indeed it was a few photos shared here with me from another member (who may or may not wish to be named) that helped me figure out this problem. I also worked with porcelain sometimes and I've been working on perfecting and testing English bone china slip I've made here in my studio. So I went ahead and produced this multi-part mold for that purpose. It works just as well for earthenware. As I knock some rust off I'll be pushing to try and make more complex molds that would allow me to cast Porthos as whole and as close to one piece as possible. Body with three legs attached most likely, with the head and neck separate and that cocked back leg. That would take less assembly and thus less time. And problem solving with mold making is an excellent challenge to practice if you want to get better anyway. One of my new sculptures I have started is the 'Spider foal' that is rolling. I'm jokingly calling it my 'spider' sculpture for now because it looks hideous! But it's in the early 'skeleton' stage where I flesh out the proportions of the bones and set the joints as points of reference from which I will build up tendons, muscle, skin, etc over top. Anyway, you can see that I do not like to sculpt with molding limitations in mind. So being able to mold them in pieces and assemble ANY kind of pose or complex arrangement really frees me up to do anything I want.

Here's a quick shot of one of my wet boxes. It's just a plastic box with a lid that I happened to pour a little left over plaster into. I keep it wet with distilled water with a few drops of bleach in it so things won't mold. A layer of paper towel helps keep the plaster clean should I want to use it with different kinds of clay pieces. You can see I have already attached Portho's head to his neck, then his neck to his body. Due to the angle of the head and neck with the shoulder, and the muscling of the neck swelling in and out in the curve, it would be difficult (but not impossible) to mold that area to pour as a single piece. It would require multiple internal small mold pieces. So much easier to simply cut his head and neck off and mold them separately. It only takes a few minutes to score and slip stick all of his various pieces together once I have cleaned off the seams. I do this when he's firmed up nearly leather hard. Once he is leather hard and actually starting to dry I can remove him from the box and burnish his seams properly and do final detailing.

Yes! I've gone off and on to Breyerfest since the mid 90's and that is indeed the event I am attending this year in July. So I want to have a few of these in both sizes and both main versions produced in time to take with me. I'm also flying out to California to judge a show of equine art and of course want to take some there too. I also do a number of fine art shows once in a long while but shipping can be VERY costly and I have moved away from paying gallery and show commissions on my sales. I get plenty of people willing to fight over the pieces I post to public auctions online. Thank you both for your kind words. I would love to see your dog pieces, Denise! I used to sculpt a few dogs as well so if I ever have time I plan to get back to doing that once in a while in between equine pieces. You are right Jeff that molding a piece like Porthos /can/ be crazy - if I was determined to cast him entirely in one piece, whole. The issue of his sharply turned head and neck, and the close proximity of his back cocked leg that actually crosses over partly in front of his other back leg, would be ... very challenging to say the least. So I cut up my 'master' I was molding and I actually cast Porthos in a few pieces. With practice, assembly and clean up of such a sculpture goes pretty quickly. I can demold the pieces into a wet box, allow them to firm up a bit, then do the old score and slip-stick routine. Since I'm the sculptor it is no trouble whatsoever for me then to clean up and redetail those areas I had to attach. That way it's actually not that difficult to mold such a sculpture as long as you don't mind some assembly. I can easily put a piece like this together and do all the initial clean up and resculpting in about an hour or less. Then back into the wet box for slow drying to prevent cracking as he has some uneven thickness in some areas. To facilitate easier molding I can also flood some minor undercuts such as the tail bow, and simply go back and hand detail those pieces again after casting and assembly. It does mean I spend a lot of time with post casting but on the other hand I get thousands of dollars per piece once completed so it's well worth my time to make them the highest possible quality I can.