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COLUMBIA

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NEWSLETTER

bc potters

November/December 2002

Volume 38 Number 10

Trudy Ellen Golley

Paperplaster Moulds and Unconventional Clay Techniques

Is the prospect of making plaster moulds so over-
whelming that it prohibits you from using plaster
moulds at all? Are you afraid of plaster moulds? One
might well ask these questions of the studio based
ceramic artist.

In the carly days of my studio
practice | struggled with large
moulds that Iwas hardly able to
lift empty Iect abone filled to the
brim with casting slip, | filled
my shors with liquid plaster on
several occasions when cottles
didn't hold. In avoidance, |
found ways and means of mak-
ing the objects | wanted with-
out having to resort to
mouldmaking technology, even
though I knew that the moulds,
once minke, would prove very
liberating. Plaster moulds were
not my ‘friends’ wntil | began
using paperplaster.

In 194, I was invited to par-

Deer College, Red Deer, Al-
berta, I had read the article by
Rosette Gault in Ceramics
Monthly (July, 1993) about a revolutionary new
process she was calling paperclay and went to the
residency with the intention of exploring ideas,
materials and methods that were new to my practice.
AsT began my own experimentation | tried a variety
of different materials for the addition of paper fibre
to the clay. I tried mulched up newspapers, shredded
photocopier paper, toilet paper as well as dry cellu-
lose insulation. The cellulose insulation at that point
seemed to be the most direct method and suited my
purposes eminently.

17.0% 14.0 em

ae apne tvnal Ast Trady Golley Karyorad with the paperplaster enables me to make
Hcipateinthe International Art- 1990, mid-range stoneware =a large mould one day and use it the next.
istinResidenceprogramatRed fired in oxidation, high

One of my co-residents asked about the cellulose
fibre | was using and wondered whether it might not
work as an additive to her plaster. It seemed a good
question. Would the cellulose fibre lend the same
properties to the plaster that tt lent to clay? Would
it make the plaster stronger without dis-
turbing its properties of absorbency? We
used some of the dry cellulose fibre,
mixed it into the plaster batch and
smeared it onto the clay model. It worked
beautifully. The mould was both light
and durable. Since then I have been
working with this paperplaster to make
almost all of my slipcasting and
pressmoulding moulds,

The advantage, for me, of making
paperplaster moulds has been that | can
make large moulds very quickly and
directly. I tend to be impatient when |
have an iden and want to be able to
implement it as soon as possible. Con-
ventional plaster moulds may take a week
or more to dry completely but working

Tredy Galley

barium copper glaze. 58.0»

Trudy Golley Untitled
Figure 1999, mid-range
oxidation, slips and
glaze. H 160.0 cm