Modern Vase on LSD (Updated)

 


Modern Vase on LSD


For this next assignment we are making a mold for an abstract object. The examples given in class were cool vases and containers, so I thought I'd make my own vase. 

Hopefully my design is actually practical, as I'd really like to make a real mold of this thing and possibly cast and fire this thing in a kiln just to have in my house as a center piece on my coffee table. 




It took a lot of triangular forms to get such a distinct shape to work. I had to take extra care that the mesh was properly connected, and I eventually had to go back and clean up some of the geometry. It still isn't perfect, as the object won't join correctly. I know there is a function that highlights the problem areas, but I can't remember how to do it, so I'll ask my professor on Wednesday. 

*Edit, I figured it out.



This is my vase scaled down to fit the dimensions of my mold. Fingers crossed I can get this all figured out. 



Final model of the casting rig.


Feb 4th, 2026 *Update*


So it turns out the mold I show above was not actually ready for CNC machining, there were tons of undercuts. I had to edit my model a little, then mirror it, meaning the object isn't completely random all the way around anymore, but it still looks cool so I can live with it. 

Here are my rendered objects (vase and the foam mold): 



Vase
























Foam Mold:





 March 18th, 2026 *Update*

Ok so a couple weeks ago I made my plaster mold for the slip cast, and I've done two so far, each one better than the next. Below is a picture of my latest casting, with a little post-production processing with a scalpel knife to clean it up: 


 I'm on my way to do my third. This time I'm gonna leave the slip in for a shorter amount of time before pouring out the excess to create a slightly thinner wall, and I have to be careful not to shake it so much as I've been having issues with deformation in one spot. 

March 25th, 2026

P.S.
I forgot to upload a picture of just my mold and my foam model. Thankfully I haven't made any changes to it, although it has been broken in and there is some monster clay around the sides to cover up the holes between the two halves. Other than that, this is my mold unchanged with the foam model: 




Later, March 25th, 2026 

I finally got a usable slip cast! I even have a really good thickness on it too, my other ones were way too thick and therefor heavy, but this ones nice and light. Unfortunately my mold was full of bubble imprints, so I had to do some post-fabricating with an exacto knife to remove them. While I was at it, I cleaned up all the surfaces so they were as sharp and smooth as possible. Is it perfect? No... I'm pretty picky and I like things to be PERFECT, but I realized it'd take me a couple more castings to get my technique perfected, so I just settled with what I had for now (something I'm getting better at). Overall I'm still pretty proud of how this turned out, and it'll be a cool table piece in my place. 
 



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