? Pat Taddy Beads a Book |lonce owned a Volkswagon Beetle. Trust me, this has something to do, in a circuitous way, with Donald Friths “Mold Making for Ceramics’, which Karen has been badgering me to review for over two months. Most people who owned Beetles, (I was no exception) leamed quickly that they needed to be cared for and fiddled with if they were to be happy and reliable cars. There were several manuals available, at one end of the spectrum was an expensive one. Its glossy, high quality pages were liberally sprinkled with photos of well manicured hands pushing clean cogs onto polished shafts, or of the same hands sorting sanitary looking engine parts on a spacious, pristine bench. A tool rack festooned with uncountable specialized gear pullers, wrenches and gauges rose behind the orderly bench. The smock wom by our well manicured mechanic was always freshly pressed and laundered. When his countenance was visible it was seen to be humorless and intent. At the other end of the spectrum was a book without photos, Its pages were of paper one grade more refined than hand-pounded papyrus, and in the place of photos were wobbly sketches of greasy, dishevelled backyard mechanics contorted into the rusted bowels of Volkswagons. As well as being very funny, this book wamed you that if you tried to remove the muffler for its biennial replacement at least one of the studs set into the exhaust manifold would break, that drilling the bugger out of the soft metal surrounding it with the engine still in the car required tools only slightly less complex and expensive that the Canadarm, and that you might as well dismantle the whole heap at that point anyway to replace or service all the other parts that couldn't be found with the engine still in place, | tended to rely on the latter book. | think this had something to do with it being more entertaining, but also with a feeling that there emanated from the more expensive book a discouraging cloud of censure. The prospect of facing that clean and organized mechanics certain contempt for my imperfect work habits made me hesitate to tackle some necessary repairs. the second book was reassuring; we will muddle through somehow. Donald Frths book is bit like that more expensive manual, but for mold makers there is nothing in print comparable to the maladroit, friendly Beetle page 8 manual, so rather than carp peevishly about the rather formal and clinical tone of something that is. after all, a reference book, | will say that is a comprehensive and thorough book on a broad and neglected subject. The first section of three chapters is probably essential reading for anyone confronting plaster and moldmaking for the first time, Itis useful too for the more experienced who might be by habit using tools and materials that result in poor molds or that make projects more difficult than they need to be. Chapter one is historical review of mold use in various ceramic cultures. It is interesting not only as an account of how long molds have been used for, but also for the range of applications they have been put to, and for the universality of mold use in the past. Pressing, draping, stamping and even slip-casting have all been used for longer than you think, or at least longer than | thought. Also in this section is a chapter on tools and materials for mold making and another on plaster. Read them. The second section of seven chapters covers a variety of press-moulding techniques from simple stamps and sprigs through draping and slumping to pressing and jiggering (the glossary is at the end of the book). The text and accompanying photos lead the reader through the forming of molds in a wide variety of materials, and also through the use of these molds. It is a clearly presented and useful guide to a number of forming options. Section three is devoted to slip-casting. It too uses a thoughtful combination of photos and text to describe the forming of plaster molds for this process. It is organized logically, neglects no essential information, and closes with a vital chapter on casting slips and deflocculation. The index at the end of this book is complete enough to direct a reader quickly to whatever topic might interest her. Glued to the inside back cover is an an envelope containing a clever little slide calculator for computing the volume of plaster needed for any mold, and for the amounts of water and dry plaster needed for that volume. For someone serious about clay this book is an indispensable resource and problem solving tool. It can befound at the Gallery book section.