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Behind the Scenes at TBA

Behind the Scenes at TBA - The Bright Angle

Our signature systems are what make The Bright Angle products different from any other porcelain housewares on the market. In this article, we'll share more about our unique way of combining tools with craft to create products for people around the world. 

 

OUR PROCESS


TBA's First Modular Mold System

In 2016, I developed my first modular mold system. I’d embraced mold-making and slip-casting as my primary making process, because it made me able to effectively work with porcelain - an inherently troublesome material to work with when throwing or hand-building. I was able to have more control of my materials by mixing them from scratch and constantly refining them to be stronger, more durable, pigmented, compatible with certain glazes, and so on. 

Our modular system allowed me to explore more innovative designs, to focus on specific forms and elements that looked tasteful, balanced, and proportionate. They also created efficiency in the production process, so a lot of variety can be created in one idea. Mold systems allow us to hang out and work together. To collaborate.

 



Plaster Molds and Slipcasting

Plaster is the material we use to make working mold parts for porcelain production. When you add water to gypsum (calcium sulphate dehydrate) and mix them together, it undergoes a chemical transformation and can be poured over other objects to create a negative shell stamp when it hardens. If it is poured on glass, it is as smooth as glass. Think of it like a fossil… or what archaeologists use to capture footprints.

The plaster we use for molds is mixed to a certain porosity that draws water out of clay to make the clay rigid and catalyze the drying process. Liquid slip is poured and compressed against the porous plaster. It assumes the negative form of the plaster. Conversely, the plaster absorbs water from the outside in, therefore the longer the liquid clay is in the plaster mold, the thicker the walls of the clay get. The plaster will continue to suck moisture out of the slip until there's nothing left.

This process is known as slipcasting. As the moisture from the liquid slip is sucked into the plaster, it starts as a film, then becomes a skin, then a shell until the shell is significantly thick and gets hard without the presence of water. The liquid slip is poured and spends a timed period within the plaster mold allowing this shell to form around the edge. Then the remaining wet slip is poured back out, leaving a hollow vessel in the mold. Once this shell has a little more time to dry, it can be neatly removed from the plaster mold without sticking.

Plaster also has a life cycle of how many times it can cycle from wet to dry. The porous channels begin to expand and the plaster breaks down - it deteriorates. It can however be recycled by being heated to high temperatures and will become a dry powder that can once again again be mixed with water and turned back to a mold part.

 

The 25 Steps

We want to flow through ideas - not start and stop. We want to create a process dynamic that you can tear down and build back up again:

 

  1. Look, listen, think, live
  2. Sketch
  3. Measure
  4. Model
  5. Laser
  6. Measure
  7. Model
  8. 3d print
  9. Measure
  10. Model
  11. Commit
  12. Scale proportional model accounting for shrinkage
  13. CNC mill model parts
  14. Mold
  15. Replicate
  16. Test
  17. Refine
  18. Rubber
  19. Cast more molds
  20. Learn how to use new tools
  21. Explore
  22. Create
  23. SHARE!
  24. Respond to feedback
  25. Repeat

MATERIALS

And then there is our specialty - clay. In my opinion, clay is the most fickle and demanding craft material to work with. Yet, it also the most malleable, sensitive, forgiving and responsive. Clay is a blend of materials that is full of potential and opportunity, until it is fired and transformed into a hard glassy material like stone. When clay is fired it goes under a chemical change from a plastic material to a vitreous glass and becomes ceramic.

Fired ceramic is durable, but it can’t be belted back down to a workable state. It will be many years before it will succumb to the forces of time, erosion, pressure and heat and is broken down to tiny particles to start blending back in with other particles to form clay again: Earth.

Ceramic becomes a mark of time. When clay is formed and fired into ceramic, it serves as a marker of the minds and hands at the time and place where it was originally fired. Clay can be all the colors of the rainbow. It can be blended to serve many purposes for each specific making process. There are endless possibilities . . .

The translucent porcelain that we create is an extra special material. It is white, refined, and pure. It contains minimal impurities such as iron and titanium that reduce its strength and translucency. It is so refined that wars have been fought over porcelain. It's that valuable. Porcelain clay is known as white gold. Providing it to the masses in an affordable way is central to Our Mission.