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Book Review – The Mold-Making Manual: The Art of Models, Molds, and Slip-Cast Ceramics

I have been utilizing the techniques of plaster mold-making and ceramic slip-casting to create ceramic sculptures and vessels for the past fifty-six years. Beginning with my early experiments as an undergraduate student, I spent time observing these processes in the Ma and Pa greenware shops so popular in the 1960s, where people could select a Santa Claus mug or a clown cookie jar from the shelves to glaze and have fired. My instructor at the time, the mercurial Ken Ferguson, drove me to the Heart of America Ceramics Shop in Kansas City, KS, where he dropped me off to spend the day in their mold production facility, saying, “Notkin, you have the ideas, these people have the techniques.” It was a great introduction to some of the finer points of plaster mold-making. Since then, I have spent a lifetime of mostly self-taught experience, along with a couple of stints during the start-up of the Artist-in-Industry program at the Kohler Company in the 1970s.  

I have also been collecting books on the myriad technologies of mold-making and casting in clay and have over twenty-five volumes in my library. I should mention that while many general texts on ceramics have designated a chapter on mold-making and casting, I have found these obligatory chapters often contain numerous incorrect bits of information, especially on mixing plaster or drying molds.   

Fortunately, the ceramic arts field now has a recent addition to this genre: The Mold-Making Manual: The Art of Models, Molds, and Slip-Cast Ceramics by Jonathan Kaplan. Upon my first examination, I was quite impressed with the wide range of information and the full scope of the author’s knowledge presented in this volume. While most of the other books I have on this subject cover only limited aspects of these processes – and at worst, only the author’s approach – Kaplan’s treatise is the most extensive and comprehensive, covering the widest range of techniques and applications. While there are volumes aimed at industrial ceramic technologies, which are far more oriented to complex engineering aspects and scientific theory, Kaplan’s book is aimed at the individual potter, sculptor, or small ceramic enterprise. It does not scrimp, however, on the essential engineering and mechanics of mold-making or the basic science of casting-slip formulation. Still, it presents each area in an easy-to-understand fashion. Perhaps the most succinct way to express the impact this book will have on its readers is to quote from Kaplan’s introduction: “My intent is to provide the necessary information and visual documentation so as to demystify working with plaster.”  

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