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What Is A Ceramic Mold:
What are ceramic molds made of?
A ceramic mold is made of plaster. It is made to create a shape or object using clay or slip (liquid clay). A mold can have one piece, referred to as an open pour, open cast or press mold. Most commonly, molds have two or more pieces which fit together like a puzzle creating a casing to hold liquid clay or ‘Slip’. Open pour or press molds are one piece molds that can be used with slip or by pressing clay into them. The clay takes on the shape of the cavity of the mold and is then removed, processed and fired. Ceramic molds can be very heavy with some of the larger ones weighing a couple hundred pounds. The everyday hobbyist usually confines their selection of molds to under 50 pounds. Being plaster, though heavy, they are quite fragile and they will shatter or chip if hit or set roughly on hard surfaces. They can warp when they get over saturated and are not tightly banded during the drying process. If over used, they soften and the detailing in the cavity can wear away.
Life of a mold is considered 40-50 castings. But with proper care, molds can create several hundred castings.