Tag Archives: moldmkaing

Pate de Verre Clay to Refractory Mold Part 1 Test Tiles

To get the colors I want for my pate de verre I need to test the various percentages of color to use concentration of colors for high and low highlights. As with painting in other media you have light and dark values of of colors. The difference in pate de verre is the process is reversed painted. As you build your layers you cover up sections and have to the intended look of drawing where you can list what to lay down as color first and then the following progression of color by layers. Option 1 is to use the clay and make a single use refractory mold of 1:1:1 (#1 pottery plaster, 200 mesh silica, water). Always add the plaster to the water. I have hundreds of colors that require the various percentages so doing an original model in clay (option 1) would be exceedingly time consuming so I opted to do a kiln load full of test tiles and used Option 2 To the clay positive, I add a base of clay under the positive then coddle pour a #1 pottery mold. Once the plaster as set up, usually 30-40 minutes the clay can be removed and the mold cleaned up then left to cure 24-48 hours depending on humidity levels.

Pate de Verre Silicone Positives Part 3


 
You can make a #1 pottery plaster mold to create a silicone positive. The positive once cured gets to be used for a coddle pour of #1 pottery plaster and 200 mesh silica to make make an investment mold that can endure the heat of the kiln. if you have many test tiles to make using silicone positives really reduce the time spent to make simple test tiles of varying color degrees. While my tiles are thin I can vary colors concentrations to allow for high and low lights to the work. In the early 2000’s at a BeCon conference Jim Jones was the sales director doing a demo of frit tinting. As a pate de verre artist I was captivated by the concept. While the demo was a single color the idea can accommodate custom blends of your choosing and allows for creative variations to support the artistic need. As usual Bullseye empowers artist to springboard ideas and use their imaginations to tweak and provide artists a lot of artistic freedom. Here’s the link to Bullseye’s literature on frit tinting. 
 
http://www.bullseyeglass.com/methods-ideas/frit-tinting.html