At the beginning of the year I shared the history behind my Plant Shelfie Bookends and mentioned beginning the process of having molds made of them. At first we tried to make our own molds with Mariana, but it proved too complicated for us to do correctly (the photos below are of that). Little did I know they would also prove challenging even for the experts at Mudshark Studios and that it would take so many months of testing, troubleshooting and prototyping, but here we are nearly nine months later and they are ready for prime time! It’s crazy to think that I made more than 150 pairs of bookends by hand last year, and still could not make enough for everyone that wanted them.

First, I want to explain slip casting for those who may think it’s an easy process or machine made. It’s neither of those things. I made my perfect prototype from clay, to make a mold out of plaster, but had to modify the shape a bit to be able to cast the shape without damage or cracking. So my husband Nick helped me modify the design a bit using a computerized design program and we then 3D printed the modified shape to cast the mold from plaster. This also needed a few modifications as we had troubles with the saucer cracking.

If you don’t know about slip casting, here’s how it works. Using a prototype, and plaster a mold is built in multiple parts, depending on the complexity of the form. My bookends required a three part mold, which means a plaster mold is built in thirds, one at a time, and then the previous piece(s) are used to help pour the next part of the mold. The photos below represent our failed attempt last summer, but give you an idea of the process of building the molds.

The plaster molds then need to dry for a few weeks before they can be tested. Once they’re dry enough, we pour slip (liquid clay) into the molds and let it sit for 20+ minutes. The longer the slip sits in the molds, the thicker the walls of the piece will be, but this timing is also altered by humidity in the air affecting drying time. When they’re ready the excess clay is poured out through a spout and the molds are left until the clay dries to a leather hard state. This means the clay is set and dry enough to handle without warping, but still wet enough to modify.

When we take the plaster molds off of the new clay pieces, the pour spout leaves what we call a spare. Basically the shape of the pour spout attached to the mouth of the pot. The spare is cut off by hand, and the seam lines and edges from the spout are also cleaned up by an artist, using a clay knife and damp sponge to make the surfaces smooth. Normally I would add the hooks to the backs of the bookends at this point, but we’ve had some troubles with the backs of the bookends warping significantly (this happens a little when I make them by hand too but it’s more subtle/acceptable), so I decided to eliminate the hooks for the first run to reduce the warping.

Next they are left to dry slowly, before they can be bisque fired. Once they are unloaded from the kilns, Mudhsark will call Anna (my fabulous studio assistant workin in my Portland studio), and she will pick them up and glaze them, sand the bottoms, and lovingly pack and ship them out to you. Each part of this process involves real humans, making the molds, pouring the slip, dumping the slip, cleaning up the pieces, loading the kilns, transporting, glazing, packing and shipping. Even more humans are required to make the bookends this way, than when I was making them myself! The part that I love about this process, is that my design is now creating work for a few other artists. So while your purchase supports me and my small business, you are now also supporting other artists livelihoods as well. How cool is that?

I hope you’ll continue to shop small and support artists. We need you more now than ever!

And if you’re in Europe, I’m here in Portugal making the bookends by hand for the foreseeable future, and can’t wait to share them with you too.