The therapy of casting

Casting household items can be extremely difficult, especially if you don’t have the financial ability to use easier and more flexible casting materials such as silicone. To create the milk bottles, light switch and iron I wanted to make for ‘Horrors of the home’ I had to use a plaster mould and an alginate mould. Seeing as my uni gives us plaster for free I tried to make a 2-part mould of the milk bottle and iron using that, it worked for the milk bottles but because of the shape and size of the iron I has to rethink and change to making an alginate 2-part mould, which also didn’t work. I ended up using half the alginate mould and plugging up any holes and cracks with clay whilst I filled it with wax. While extremely unconventional, it did work in the end and I’m really happy with the final look of the iron. I didn’t smooth it down or fix the errors left from the cast. Instead I let it look ‘rough’ much like how Sarah Lucas and Rachael Whitread do with their work.

The only way to do the cast for the light switch was to cast it in an inch think slab of alginate. This being that the poured cast wouldn’t have come out of the plaster mould and most likely would have cracked. The milk bottles and light switches were also left in their natural roughness only slightly touched up to fix any broken parts.

Milk Bottle plaster cast

Wax Milk Bottle

Casting has become a process that I have fallen in love with, and the pouring of wax feels like a second nature to me. It is so malleable and reusable, which I love. I can make as many mistakes as necessary until I get the right solution for a piece, without spending hundreds of pounds In materials. although it is quite time consuming, I enjoy the patient atmosphere of working in this way. I find it relaxing and almost therapeutic. I also find that casting and creating replicas of objects can act almost like a supernatural reincarnation. It becomes a ghost-like object instead that stands in place of what was once their. 

Light Switch Alginate cast

Wax Light Switch

Rachel Whitread has compared her castings of objects and architectures (houses) to be like that process and outcome of a death mask. Typically used in various cultures to cast the heads of their loved ones to keep their memory alive in the homes. I feel like in a way I do this also in my work, but through wax, which also has its historical ties to the mummification and preservation of the body. A disgusting, yet extremely interesting topic that I would like to explore more.  

Rachel Whitread 'House'