What Is Mold-making?

Discover this crucial step in manufacturing sculptures, ceramics, and much more

Whether we’re using artisanal or industrial processes, two essential items that we need to reproduce an object are 1) a liquid material that will go hard when heat is applied and 2) a mold. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about large-scale industries such as automobile manufacturing or small workshops producing artisan products: molds are essential for reproducing objects. But… how are molds made?

What is mold-making?

Mold-making is creating a mold that will later be used to duplicate a particular object or artwork. It can be made from different materials, including metal, plastic, clay, and plaster.

Mold-making is among one of the oldest artisan techniques that we know about. In the beginning, molds were ceramic structures, inside of which you would put wet clay for reproducing your pieces. Later, plaster became the preferred material for making molds.

Molds enable us to reproduce ceramic pieces or other items that we’ve made, as well as unlikely objects such as a piece of fruit or body parts like hands and feet. To make a mold for any object, we need to put the object into a moldable material that will later turn hard, at which point we extract the object, its shape is left, and the mold can be used to reproduce this piece.

When it comes to creating a mold, you will need to create a receptacle in which to pour the liquid material, allowing it to completely cover the object we want to duplicate. You will need to take special care when it comes to extracting the object from the mold without damaging it.

A basic mold might be made up of just one piece (such as when it’s made by pouring a liquid material over an object in a box). However, usually, it will be made of at least two symmetrical pieces that fit together and inside of which you inject the liquid material that goes hard and becomes a solid object.

If you want to learn more about mold-making, then be sure to check out Xènia Bas’ Domestic course, Creation of Molds for Ceramic Reproduction, where you can learn techniques for making molds with plaster so that you can reproduce unique objects.

You may also like:

–Creation and Modeling of Ceramic Characters, a course by Martín Ferreyra
–Ceramics at Home for Beginners, a course by Paula Casella
–Ceramic Jewelry for Beginners, a course by Julieta Álvarez