The mold for this bowl was an open-faced, lost wax plaster silica hand-built mold. I made silica molds of real star anise, and took wax impressions from those molds and attached them to a blank wax bowl. The wax was approximately 2.5″ X 5″. After the mold was built and steamed, there were quite a few really bad undercuts, where the plaster had filled in between the anise and the bowl, so I cleaned those up as best I could. The mold was approximately 2″ thick throughout. The mold was built on September 28th, and Steamed on October 3rd, 2008.
On October 5th, I packed the mold with System 96 powdered glass in the following colours:
1. Light Amber 5 clear : 2 colour
2. Gold Brown – 8 clear : 2 colour
3. Black Transparent – 5 clear : 2 colour
The mold was fired on October 6th, with the following pate-de-verre fusing schedule:
1 hour to 100°C,
6 hours @ 100°C,
11 hours to 515°C,
13 hours to 720°C,
18 hours @ 720°C,
18.01 hours to 550°C,
25 hours to @ 550°C,
39 hours to 400°C,
46 hours to 50°
6 hours @ 100°C,
11 hours to 515°C,
13 hours to 720°C,
18 hours @ 720°C,
18.01 hours to 550°C,
25 hours to @ 550°C,
39 hours to 400°C,
46 hours to 50°
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| Star Anise #1 |
More details and pictures are available in the attached Picasa album.
I will re-make this bowl, as during the firing, the pate-de-verre slumped and pulled away from the edges of the mold, making the upper edge of the bowl rough and fragile. Also, a lot of plaster was fused into the glass, and is impossible to remove.
this is so beautiful, i love love love your work ainsley!