Notes on CastingPaper
I found selection of commercial moulds for paper casting, disappointing when I started looking in 1997. And that disappointment led me to make my own, which is far less difficult than I imagined.
I've gotten years of life from some of my early plaster molds.
I make the original from modeling or earth based clay. I sketch the image or object on cardboard, cut it out, then mound/shape the modeling clay/plastina on the flat shape. I save plastic sandwich containers-- so I do not have to build a box or dam for the plaster-- and collect small boxes, and all take-out containers.
I grease the clay model with vaseline or spray it with cooking oil if it is modeling clay-- earth based clays don't need this-- and also the container and pour in enough plaster to leave at least an inch on every side and two inches above (which ends up being the base of) the object.
Plaster mixing instructions vary according to the kind of plaster you use. While now I use only pottery plaster (because I make molds for glass, too) my first molds were with the 25 lb. bags of plaster from the hardware store, and these have lasted.
In terms of casting in plaster molds:
1. most paper shrinks as it drys, this pulls the piece away from the mold.
2. because of the above parting stuff usually isn't necessary.
3. I would avoid using Pam or any vegetable oil against your paper
4. my plaster molds are too valuable to put in an oven, microwave or otherwise.
5. I set plaster molds on a board on a radiator
6. sometimes I will speed the drying time with fan which also tends to increase the shrink and warp of the finished piece
I saw someone "screen" water putty through a stencil to make a dimensional card and I filed that away as another relief-construction approach I could use for paper casting.
Other mold sources are: cookie cutters, copper molds, tin molds. Cookie cutters and these other metal molds could be cast in.
A cookie cutter could be used as a deckle or, placed on screening, filled with pulp, and be used as a mold. I have a heavy tin wavy edged heart I like to use that way.
I've also used a cookie cutter to make a mold-- I roll out plastic/modeling clay, cut out the image using the cookie cutter, amend it, and then make a plaster cast of it.
My paper casting interests include vessel-forms (so I'm always on the lookout out for potential molds for these), bas reliefs, and sculptures.
Where I Gathered, 2002 Akua Lezli Hope, cast pulps including: timothy, denim,knotweed, cornhusk , cotton and recycled currency.
You can shape pulp freehand on a screen or other stiff surface that drains and evacuate water from the underside using a wet-vac. Or use cookie cutters, shaped deckles, stencils in this way.
For another textural application I saw a show host use "joint compound."
This gave me the idea that small moulds could be made using spackle or any of the premixed/pre-made plaster-like materials from the hardware store.
This would work too for low-relief results using stencils and could even be piped through cookie presess or through cake decorators.
Unlike any of my readings, I've never sealed the plaster, I appreciate the wicking effect it has on paper.
When using recycled pulp for casting, I make sure I blender it really well. I want as fine a slurry as possible.
I don't cast with a sheet forming consistency-- I do a quick sieve drain of the pulp--- I've found a hand squeeze removes too much water and a painter's/bag/nylon drain takes out too much. So I have a big sieve now that I favor for castings.
Here are several sources with info on casting:
The Art of Papermaking by Bernard Toale offers an excellent overview of a number of paper casting techniques and reviews a variety of mold types: plaster, rubber, shaped molds, vacuum table casting, complex(very) deckles... information packed, a good reference as well as how-to book, I think it is one of those "canon" books and belongs in every collection, lots of images of artists' work.
The Art of Papermaking
by Bernard Toale, c 1983, Davis Publications, Worcester, Mass, ISBN: 087192-140-5, 120 pages
In the article Sculptural Paper by Roxane Orgill, Hand Papermaking Volume Six Number One Summer 1991, the artworks and techniques used by six artists are described.
The Art and Craft of Papermaking by Sophie Dawson, 144 pages, Running Press, Philadelphia (Quarto Publishing, 1992 England) ISBN 1-56138-158-6
Wow. Seminal. Packed with inspiration, how-tos, details, instructions and great images. Another " mus"t for every papermaking and papier mache library - pulp painting, pulp spraying, sculptural techniques with paper (and not of the scissors-exacto knife type).
Experiments in Paper Casting, an article by Jody Williams in Hand Papermaking Summer 1989 Volume 4, Number 1 was another key learning article for me.
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