Plaster Disaster

My latest disaster for the week is with plaster. Luckily I have finally found a mentor to help me with casting my peppers! Finally! And I do feel grateful to have found him. We were supposed to have a weekend workshop this past weekend where I was going to learn all about mold making, various methods, secrets, etc. Well it just so happens that I am one of two people in this town who are actually interested in learning this... so they canceled the class. Of course nobody called me to tell me, so I got to drive for 60 minutes in the rain only to find out that the class was canceled. Anyhow, the teacher was kind enough to invite me into his sculpture class and teach me the techniques on Tuesday nights for the next several weeks. As difficult as it is for me to break away from my 1 year old daughter for the evening, it is something I have to do.

So last night was the first class. I have to say I got the royal treatment from my instructor, probably due to the workshop being canceled. We got started on casting my pepper and I was supposed to finish at home on my own. I have all the materials here, that I bought years ago when trying to learn mold making by myself. So here I am during nap time, mixing up plaster, laying down newsprint and getting the space ready, only to find that the plaster has gone bad. Oye! Well, I had a feeling this might happen. Moisture got into the plaster and created small chunks that will not dissolve in the water. It is also not allowing the plaster to harden. So I have to drive out to the clay store tomorrow and get another bag of pottery plaster. I wish I had known and I could have gone today. This is putting another 2 days onto the project and the pepper may shrink before I can finish casting it. Oh well, if it does I'll just sculpt another one for casting.

I guess it's just another obstacle in the road to the pepper project.