Building a wet slab bonsai pot

[Pitoon]

@ABCarve how long "usually" does it take for the pots to get bone dry in your studio?

 

[ABCarve]

How do you laminate the foam layers together?

Hot craft glue. Use as little as possible. Keep it away from where you carve it because it will clog carving bits and sandpaper

 

[ABCarve]

@Pitoon @ABCarve how long "usually" does it take for the pots to get bone dry in your studio. About two weeks depending on size. They’re bagged except for a few hours a day. No stress for cracking.

 

[Sekibonsai]

So what is the best material to use for carving molds, Have you moved on form the big box insulating panels?

 

[ABCarve]

So what is the best material to use for carving molds, Have you moved on form the big box insulating panels?

If you’re asking where I get my foam...... I get it at Lowe’s. It’s insulation board in 4 x 8 foot sheets. I use 2” and 1” thickness’. They do have 2’x 2’ x1” sheets if you want something smaller.

 

[Sekibonsai]

If you’re asking where I get my foam...... I get it at Lowe’s. It’s insulation board in 4 x 8 foot sheets. I use 2” and 1” thickness’. They do have 2’x 2’ x1” sheets if you want something smaller.

I was just wondering if you had switched to something else over the course of the 12 pages...

I tried to make a simple one for a soap dish prototype from regular styrofoam egad what a frikkin mess!

 

[ABCarve]

Hmmmm........I might have to make some more of these. Maybe a more square format. Bjorn’s Facebook.

 

[RJG2]

Hmmmm........I might have to make some more of these. Maybe a more square format. Bjorn’s Facebook. View attachment 340798

It's in his most recent video too! Same setup and photos (he took some trees around town for a photo shoot).

 

[sorce]

square format

That one's perfect! I've always liked it. Especially the little tubey feet!

Sorce

 

[Forsoothe!]

That one's perfect! I've always liked it. Especially the little tubey feet!

Sorce

It looks like a running piggy...

 

[sorce]

It looks like a running piggy...

You can take that to the bank!

Sorce

 

[ABCarve]

Finally trying my hand at some shogun pots. Gonna do a deep dive into the process of mold and rib design. Stay tuned.

 

[ABCarve]

So here is a pictorial of how I now design and make the the plugs and ribs for my wet slab pots. The shohin pots I just posted were made in about 2 hours from the time the slabs were rolled out. The bottom slab is a different thickness than the sides.

 

[ABCarve]

Part two.

 

[Pitoon]

So here is a pictorial of how I now design and make the the plugs and ribs for my wet slab pots. The shohin pots I just posted were made in about 2 hours from the time the slabs were rolled out. The bottom slab is a different thickness than the sides.

Part two.

Extremely helpful. What's the thickness for the slabs?

 

[ABCarve]

Extremely helpful. What's the thickness for the slabs?

5/32" for the bottom and 5/16 for the sides......although a lot of that gets scraped off.

 

[ABCarve]

Extremely helpful. What's the thickness for the slabs?

I’m gonna do wrapping paper next. Mostly cause we’re nearing the holidays

 

[ABCarve]

Klaatu Barata Nikto - Redux

So this is a pot that's been mentioned previously in post #178 that I thought I would like to revisit. I thought the design could benefit from a more squarish look, especially for literati which seems to be used in wide-lipped pots. I keep plugs around for a period of time before I cannibalize them for other pots. This one only needed to be slightly altered to accommodate the shortened version.
If you look closely you'll notice the plug has been broken into quadrants with a 1/2" key in the middle of each quadrant. I usually reserve this technique for pots that will enclose the plug and used to get the plug out after the clay is formed around it, just like the pot in the first posting of this thread. This time there are ulterior motives. BTW this plug was carved in two layers, one for the lip, one for the container and then put together.

 

[ABCarve]

This had one slab laid over the form and V-sections were removed from the corners to accommodate the geometry. The clay for the feet are weighed and shaped individually so as to have them of equal mass.
This took a few hours and the clay was still quite wet. If I would try to flip the pot to remove the plug the lip would collapse. If I left the plug in for enough time for the clay to firm up, the pot would shrink so much around the plug that it would crack the pot. The pot was spanned over two tables so as to remove the keys (without flipping it over) and allow the pot to shrink overnight to a leather hard stage. You can actually see how much it has shrunk by the gap in the two quadrants compared to the thickness of the keys.

 

[ABCarve]