22 ‘AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
HANDICRAF TSMAN 
January, 1911 
) a pottery producing method, casting from 
plaster molds is often decried by the ultra- 
artistic as lacking in individuality when 
compared with the work of the thrower. 
This is only relatively true, because, ex- 
cept in rare instances when the artist is 
embodied in the thrower, the work of the 
latter does not reach us as it leaves his hands. In America 
the thrower is not infrequently, though erroneously, called 
a turner. ‘The thrower takes a lump of clay which he 
places on the center of a revolving disc and then by the 
skillful manipulation of his fingers or a few rude tools the 
clay, obedient to the pressure and direction he gives to it, 
assumes the desired form. It is probably the most beau- 
tiful process in any of the industrial arts. But the piece as 
it leaves his hands is not suitable for an article of com- 
merce, it shows the marks of tool and fingers. So when 
it is suficiently dry it passes into the hands of another 
workman, the turner, who places 
it on a horizontal lathe and with 
a sharp tool turns it smooth and 
even, and the result as it reaches 
you is no longer the individual 
expression of the thrower, but 
a piece of “thrown and turned” 
ware. Many pieces from their 
shape cannot be thrown on the 
wheel and molds are then re- 
sorted to. [hese molds were 
originally made of metal, later 
of pottery and finally of plaster 
of Paris. If you look at the il- 
lustration of the Rosenburg vase, in the head-piece of the 
page, you will see what beautiful results can be obtained by 
casting. The idea of the designer was that the handles 
should form a component part of the whole, and by no 
other process could this have been so well effected. To cast 
pieces of similar shape to this in a body lacking 
plasticity is no mean achievement. 
Conducted by A. Russell Bond 
Home-Made Pottery—II. 
By W. P. Jervis 
Making a two-piece mold for a bowl 
themselves were carved by hand. Do not fail to remember 
that on account of the shrinkage a mold twelve inches high, 
if the shrinkage is one-eighth, will yield a piece ten and a 
half inches when fired. 
The simplest is the one piece mold, applicable only to a 
few shapes wider at the top than at the bottom, and hay- 
ing no projections on the sides to interfere with the mold’s 
“drawing.” 
On a well greased plaster bat, a piece of glass or 
wood, place your model, top downward. Surround this 
with a piece of thin zinc or iron, such as is used to make 
stove pipes, or a strip of oil cloth serves equally well, tie it 
well together with a stout cord, and plaster round the bot- 
tom and joints with clay so as to prevent leakage of the 
plaster. The frame should be higher than the model and 
allow about the same space, according to the size of your 
model, for the side of your mold. Mux the plaster, having 
first well greased every part, and delay pouring as long as 
possible, as it should be thick 
enough so that it will just pour 
smoothly and fill until it is 
flush with the top of the frame 
and it will give you a mold like 
that shown in Fig. 3. A two- 
piece mold is not much more 
complicated. Some pieces are 
best made in diagonal, some in 
horizontal parts. A bowl for 
flowers similar to the cut of 
model (A) is best made in hori- 
zontal halves. Having found the 
point of extreme diameter, care- 
fully mark it with a good strong line all around and then 
place it on a bat top downwards. Build up with clay from 
the bat to the line making an absolutely even plane all 
around the model (B). 
So that the two parts shall not move, a lock is necessary, 
and this can be made by rolling a morsel of clay 
‘ into a sphere, cutting it in half and placing the 
The first requisite to make a mold for a cast halves, moistened with a little water, on the built- 
piece is a model. ‘This may be of any material up clay. Four or five of these buttons should be so 
strong enough to re- placed, or on a plas- 
sist the pressure of ter bat cut over sev- 
the plaster. If the eral sizes of these 
shape is to be cre- hemispheres, and this 
ated, the model can will serve as a mold. 
be carved by hand Fill the depressions 
from a_ block of with clay and smooth 
plaster, or made down to the surface 
from templates on of the plaster. By 
a revolving rod. pressing a damp 
Formerly the molds Fig. 1—Model on a plaster bat. Fig. 2—Model for three-piece mold. Fig. 3—A one-piece-mold. 
knife on them they 
