Building a wet slab bonsai pot

ABCarve said:
It could be your! 😅 Lets wait to see what happens after the glazing.......you may change your mind.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. The glazes I've seen in past posts are great, but I can imagine glaze fails happen too. Ping me when the time comes.
 
ABCarve said:
The pot is flipped over and the tape removed from the newspaper. The plug can then be removed, followed by the newspaper.
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I struggled on this phase. My foam male form was stuck inside of the clay shell. I used newspaper. Any ideas?
 
dsvarney99 said:
I struggled on this phase. My foam male form was stuck inside of the clay shell. I used newspaper. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Sometimes if you wait too long the clay shrinks tightly to the plug. Was your newspaper only attached to the plug at the top where you could remove it? If the newspaper is attached elsewhere you’re trying to pull out the plug and newspaper at once. That doesn’t work.
If the sides of the pot are fairly vertical there can be a vacuum when pulling. Put a hole in the bottom to release the vacuum. The more draft that’s on the sides of the plug the easier they come out. Wiggling it back and forth slightly helps. Did you take a photo?
 
dsvarney99 said:
I struggled on this phase. My foam male form was stuck inside of the clay shell. I used newspaper. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
In my studio, the temperature is about 55F which gives me about a 6 hour window to complete the forming work. Depending on the form you can remove the plug too soon but usually not longer than 6-7 hours.
 
ABCarve said:
Sometimes if you wait too long the clay shrinks tightly to the plug. Was your newspaper only attached to the plug at the top where you could remove it? If the newspaper is attached elsewhere you’re trying to pull out the plug and newspaper at once. That doesn’t work.
If the sides of the pot are fairly vertical there can be a vacuum when pulling. Put a hole in the bottom to release the vacuum. The more draft that’s on the sides of the plug the easier they come out. Wiggling it back and forth slightly helps. Did you take a photo?
Click to expand...
I didn't. I should have. I'll try to describe it. I have a foam plug that is all one piece like your rectangle demonstration; it doesn't have the key in the middle, and it isn't in multiple pieces. Before putting the slabs on the plug, I covered all sides of the plug but one with newspaper- the bottom and sides that would have clay on them I covered with newspaper. I then tried numerous times over 5 hours to take the plug out using screws, but it didn't work. Eventually the piece cracked and I destroyed it to conserve the clay. My sides are basically completely vertical.
 
dsvarney99 said:
I didn't. I should have. I'll try to describe it. I have a foam plug that is all one piece like your rectangle demonstration; it doesn't have the key in the middle, and it isn't in multiple pieces. Before putting the slabs on the plug, I covered all sides of the plug but one with newspaper- the bottom and sides that would have clay on them I covered with newspaper. I then tried numerous times over 5 hours to take the plug out using screws, but it didn't work. Eventually the piece cracked and I destroyed it to conserve the clay. My sides are basically completely vertical.
Click to expand...
Seems to me you missed the window to pull the plug out.
 
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