Teen Ceramics Mold Making Fun

We have a class of 3 creative and lively teens working in the studio during our Tuesday Teen Ceramics class.
Our focus in this class is surface decoration, slab construction, and of course throwing! The kids just love to throw on the wheel - they would probably stay at the studio all night throwing if they could!

Our first class started out with some basic mold-making. The idea here is that the students create molds which reflect their personal interests. The kids made original clay stamps or tiles in a design of their choosing. We then built a clay wall around the stamps/tiles so that the tile is embedded in a clay box. We then pour a 2-part urethane mould into the clay box and let it sit for 24 hours. (Photo Above Left).

After the urethane compound solidifies, we then
remove the molds from the clay enclosure. Smaller molds can be used to stamp out border decorations. Tile-size molds can be used to make small planters, boxes, or just plain old tiles! The student molds on the right are a small border seagull moldh (6th grade student) and a medieval floral mold with reverse image (8th grade student).


Students roll out slabs of clay and built picture frames and planters using their molds. The mold below shows a large 12" mold and its clay imprint which was used to make a square planter.

Large Celtic Bird mold created by 8th grade student.
Clay imprint of the above mold.