Mold making madness

I spent the month of June immersed in the process of making molds and slip casting.  I was commissioned by the Palmetto Animal League to make 15" slip cast cats and dogs for a fundraiser they do annually.  The finished pieces will be decorated by local artists and auctioned off this fall.  The project was quite a challenge (mostly because of the short turn around time).  These were the largest molds I have ever made.  By the end of June I had much better upper body strength than I have in a long time.  I had a lot of fun doing this.  Thank you to Marilynn Glacken for finding me for this project.

The prototype for the the cat with the original model.

The prototype for the dog with the original model.

The finished cats and dogs, all 24 of them.

I made an extra cat so I have decided to decorate it and donate it for the auction.  I am still working on this, the painting is done in cobalt so it will eventually be blue.  I'm still deciding what I want to do with the eyes, I had originally planned to make them realistic looking cat eyes, but now I am thinking it might be nice to stick with the blue.

I made a video for my students while I was making the mold.  I am still working on the video, it is a bit too long now.  I got some great suggestions for improving it from Mitzi Davis.  Thank you Mitzi!