Birdhouse Progress - Pre-testing

Making plaster molds has been a very satisfying process to me. In my last post I was unsure whether I would do multiple different kinds of mediums on the birdhouse, and though I might make variations (I can pour as many houses as I want after all), at the moment I’m enjoying collecting things and making molds out of them, so my focus is on that.

On yet another rainy day in London I looked into the garden and quickly found an empty snail shell. I scrubbed the outside with a toothbrush & soap and cleaned the inside best I could.

Naturally, I made the pouring hole at the shell’s opening. Since it’s so small I found it difficult to make it neat, and as a result it has pretty big seam lines.

Though the finished product requires a lot of cleaning around the diameter, the size of it makes it easy to make many of this snail shells pretty quickly, and the fine lines on the shell can be seen slightly, but I doubt it would be noticeable after glazing/any kind of color.

On it’s own, it’s very cute. The memory of the snail who died in this shell will live on in these objects ๑ï

The lucky cat mold from the fast making project also produces very good casts. I’ve made many of them (around 10) and I’m planning on using them to test glazes on.

In the left of the photo you can also see half of a bottle cap cast, which is a mold made by probably another student. I’m debating whether to include it as an object because -it’s a bit big -someone else made the mold for it. At the same time though it is something a bower bird would and do collect. Initially I wanted to make a bottle cap mold, but one from a glass bottle, which would be smaller and the shape a bit more interesting, but I’m not sure I want to do that if it would just be simpler to use the bottle cap. I haven’t decided yet.

And the glaze I’ll be testing on a cat or two is the LC Malcolm Davis Shino I mentioned in the last post. One of the ingredients weren’t readily available—but can easily be made by grinding terracotta,

Though a bit time consuming (in part because I couldn’t reach all the ingredient jars) it was very easy to complete.

It surprised me how little water it took to turn the powders into a glaze—I turned the nozzle on for a second and it all instantly melted. So it’s not much, but considering I have no idea how it will turn out (some substitutions were made; maybe by measuring wasn’t perfect; glaze application) it’s a good amount for testing.

I ordered wood ash (obviously I could have made my own, but apparently it’s not polite to burn things in my yard now that I share a fence with a neighbor) and I’m going to mix it with water & spray it onto whatever I’ve glazed to create a crawling affect. I’ve seen what may be the result with this glaze & ash but when I make more glazes I’ll test ash with those, too.

And I’d like for the sections of this project to be connected with crochet, not just because I already know how to do it, but I genuinely think it would be the nicest looking technique for this project (as opposed to knitting or sewing) though I wish I had a chunkier yarn than the one I used.

I made this square to test how much weight it could hold—using only the most scientific methods such as stretching it really hard and wetting it.

I bought mod podge for an earlier project and wondered if it would strengthen the square. I painted the back with it and, indeed, it is much harder to pull and probably less likely to rip holding the birdhouse. It does leave a residue that makes it uglier, but I could paint it from the inside. And yes, I checked, Mod Podge is animal/bird safe, though the fumes are a bit much when first painted on.

I’m still wondering whether I should connect each segment with metal wires and supplement it with the crochet or just let it be. Again, I can make many of these and test them, but time matters as well. I’m not too worried about waste in the process because this is a testing stage and the final product will produce no waste/last a long time. (Later, based on how I’m making the house, I’m also thinking I’ll make two layers of crochet, one with mod podge and one without on the outside).

And finally, the most important part of the object is ready to be bisque fired (for testing).

This was the second casting. The first one came out very thin and difficult to clean, so I didn’t and didn’t take a picture. Since a part of the mold broke (because it was impossible to take the print out without breaking it) it tends to leave an indent in the cast if I don’t place the broken, triangle-shaped bit perfectly.

The handle worries me (the handle on the 3D print itself broke very easily when I dropped it, though it did print improperly) though I could add a bit of clay around the base if need be (like I did in the below picture—the bottom of the handle is a bit bigger).

There are three casts being fired right now—this one I cleaned today I poked holes in. These holes are very big (I thought the kit had a smaller hole-pokey) but I think that’s really how big they must be in order to accommodate glaze and shrinkage. I will of course use a smaller hole but I’m not sure it would be usable.

I think I’ll try using metal pins (like I’ve used in the past to use for ornaments) and sticking them around the edges to crochet around, but this might look ugly. Then again, the picture on the right looks a bit ugly to me too.

I do like the three segment looks I made here—not much planning involved, but next time I’ll exaggerate the shape more (steeper slopes) if the design is feasible (the crochet holds it up straight rather than diagonal.)

I might make another blog on the glazing but the process will be very simple and I’ve covered what I’ll be doing here already. Next time I make a post about this will probably be showing off variations, and if I like one of them I’ll be done at that point—variations of the best variation (I guess) will be in my portfolio.