14.12.20 - Filling the Mould & Making Samples with Wax

Today I went to the ceramics workshop to find that my horseshoe crab mould had set, so I removed the clay model and cleaned it out ready for pouring the plaster. The tail of the clay version snapped when de-moulding so I put a piece of wire through the tail when making the plaster one to try and stop this from happening again.


As I waited for the plaster to set, I did some experiments using batique wax and pouring it on top of different objects in an ice cube tray. I wanted to try this because I hope to make plaster crabs that have things showing through, and using the wax would let me know which materials stay on the surface and which float around and become fully submerged.

The wax eventually set and I held it up against the light to find that the objects look like strange little embryos incubating, like baby sharks in their egg cases.

(Image from Pinterest)


I de-moulded the cubes and was happy with the results - the objects in the misty wax look ghostly and seem to be frozen in time just like fossils and ancient remains preserved in ice. Some of the things showed up better than others, for instance the piece of white faux fur didn't stay on the surface so it is hardly visible. I photographed them in different lay outs and found something quite fun about arranging them like little building blocks.

Here I put the cubes in the scanner which really illuminated them and made the wax look much clearer rather than opaque, allowing the objects to be more visible. I'm really happy with how this experiment went and I think my favourites are the more colourful ones, so I want to prepare lots of wire to use in one of my plaster crabs. I think the screws would also work well because they are heavy and stay sunken down at the bottom of the mould.





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