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HOW
TO MAKE YOUR OWN SELF-HARDENING CLAY
How
to use two simple ingredients to make your own self hardening clay.
This technique
is given in both the Castcraft
Guides and the Castcraft
Moldmaking Video, but it is valuable enough to mention again:
By adding ordinary kitchen baking flour to plaster, you can make the
plaster into a "self-hardening clay" type material.
Here
are just a few things you can do with it:
- Make
sculpture you can work by hand or tools for hours. Then in 24
hours it will harden and your sculpture will be permanent. But
you can still carve and sand it.
- Use
the material as a spackle to repair defects or fill holes in a
model. You can press it into place and it will stick. 24 hours
later it will be hard and permanent.
- Use
it to make "walls" or "containers" to surround a model you will
be making a mold of. Just form the material into any shape you
need. 24 hours later you will have a mold box, more permanent
than clay.
- Make
your own custom, reusable, mold box walls: Roll the material (see
this tip) to a thickness of 1/2
inch to 3/4 inch, then cut into strips as wide and long as you
need. 24 hours later you will have a set of permanent plaster
"walls" to surround a model and make a mold box.
Here's
how to make the self-hardening clay:
First,
mix an ordinary batch of pottery plaster. Then, while stirring,
add as much flour as it takes to turn the plaster into a stiff clay-like
material. To use the material, take as much as you need and knead
it in your hands for a while until it is very well-mixed and uniform.
Then form it into any shape you want. It will have a workable time
of at least a couple of hours. It will be completely hard within
24 hours.
Remember
that this material is still plaster! To avoid plugging up your
plumbing, don't wash your hands or tools in a sink - use a wash
bucket or outside faucet!
Download
a PDF source list for just $1.99
Includes 26 suppliers of all mold making and casting materials mentioned in
ALL the demonstrations on this web site, including silicone rubber,
polyurethane rubber, latex rubber, polyurethane plastic, epoxy resin,
polyester resin, molding clay, foam board, release agents, pottery
plaster, Hydrocal, metal powders, other plastic resin fillers, and
gelatin molding compound. With company names, addresses, phone numbers,
and web sites. Downloads to your computer as a PDF file.
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