How to make a damp box to keep your pottery, ceramics, clay wet and workable. A damp box is an invaluable tool for ceramic artists who need a little more time and flexibility in scheduling out their work with clay. By storing your work in a damp box, you can keep it damp and malleable for extended periods of time, giving you the time you need to add handles, work on sculptures or anything else! Directions, supplies list and measurements below!
SUPPLIES LIST:
►No.1 Pottery Plaster (This is much cheaper if you can get it at your local ceramic supply shop:: https://amzn.to/3koocwH )
►*Cold Water (for my 24"x17" box at about 1.5" thick, I used 1.9 gallons)
►Container with a lid. (I used 24"x17"x 8" Hefty storage bin)
►**Mask (for when you are working with the powder, as you DO NOT want to breathe in plaster powder… das bad)
►Metal or rubber rib (for smoothing out the top)
►Spray bottle of rubbing alcohol (for breaking the bubbles at the surface of the plaster)
►Work space (a space you are willing to get pretty messy. I covered my table with a trash bag.)
►Bucket for mixing (I also lined my bucket with a trash bag for easy clean up)
►Gloves (so you can mix the plaster with your hands and clean up easier)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare your work space and have your container ready. You don’t want to be setting stuff up while your plaster is setting, get all of that ready first.
2. Pre-measure your cold water and plaster mix in separate containers.
3. Add your plaster mix slowly to the cold water. (DO NOT add the water into the plaster mix, DRY GOES INTO WET)
4. Work the mix with an immersion blender or your hands to get all of the lumps out and ensure the mix is well mixed. (I just used my hands)
5. Pour the mix into the container.
6. Smooth the surface with your favorite rib tool. (or don't, I didn't, but it could be helpful or necessary depending on how you pour the plaster.)
7. Tap the sides of the mold to bring bubbles to the surface.
8. Spray the top with a couple mists of the rubbing alcohol to break the surface tension and pop the bubbles.
9. Check the plaster every 15mins, tapping the sides and respraying the alcohol until the mold is firm.
10. When the mold is solid (it will still feel a little damp), you are ready to go.
11. I used a damp towel to wipe off any thin bits of plaster that could potentially break off into my box/work.
REFERENCES:
►Plaster Mixing Chart:: https://www.aardvarkclay.com/pdf/technical/Plastermixinginstructions.pdf
1 quart of water + 2.75 lbs. of plaster makes 80 cubic inches of mixed plaster.
To calculate cubic inches, take container width x length x desired plaster thickness.
Example: my container is 24 x 17 x 1.5 = 612 cubic inches
Hi guys and welcome back to my channel, Blue Nose Trading. My name is Tori Solis, and today I am going to be making a damp box to keep my work damp and malleable for an extended period of time. A damp box is essentially a box that you can seal that is going to have a layer of pottery plaster no. 1 at the bottom. The purpose of this box is to store your work so that you can come back to it at a later time.
If you're familiar with my work, you know that I throw a lot of pots on the wheel, and then I come back to them later to do sculptural and hand building work on top of my pots. Such as my chickens, or my dragons. This is going to be extremely beneficial to me because I am going to be able to store my pots until I have the time to come back and do the sculptural work on top of them. This could be beneficial to you for a number of reasons, but the core purpose of the box is to put your stuff in there and it doesn't dry out.
So, let's get started making a damp box today. We want to make sure that we are wearing a mask when we are working with pottery plaster because you don't want to be breathing this in, it can be a hazard to your respiratory health. So for safety, put on a mask. If you have a better mask than this, that is all the better, this probably isn't technically enough protection, but it's what I've got right now. I'm also going to wear gloves to reduce the amount of mess.
The box that I am making is 24 inches by about 17 inches, and I want to make my plaster anywhere from 1.5 to 2 inches thick. I am going to have all of the measurements down below. You can also find a PDF above to help calculate measurements for other dimensions of boxes, if a different dimension box would suit your needs better, or if you're only able to find a box in a different dimension.
First we are going to measure out the plaster. I have already pre-measured my water, it's 1.9 gallons, and I have that measured here. I'm going to need to have 21 pounds of plaster. I'm going to start measuring out the plaster in here on my scale, and then I'm going to put it into here. Make sure my scale is calibrated, and open up my plaster carefully. You want to create as little dust as is possible for you while you are working with this stuff.
Visually looking it over, I determined that I am going to need a larger bucket. The first thing I am going to do is add my water. This is cold to room temperature water. If you use a warm water, it is going to cause your plaster to set faster, and it's going to give you less time to work. I'm going to add the water into this bucket first. For my measurements this is 1.9 gallons of water for the size that I am making here. Smooth out the bag, bring over the plaster that we measured out, which is 21 pounds of plaster. I am just going to start slowly adding all of this plaster into this water.
As you're pouring your plaster into your water, you want to pour slowly in a way that allows the plaster to dissolve into the water as you are pouring it into the bucket. You do not want to pour all of the powder in here at once because it would create a ton of lumps. Adding it slowly and allowing it to dissolve slowly as you're adding it will ensure that you get a nice, even mix. Once I have all of the powder put into my water, I am going to mix it up with my hands, feeling around and working out any lumps that I find as I go.
Now that I have the plaster mixed, I am going to carefully and slowly pour the plaster into the container that I have chosen to make my damp box out of. I want to pour as evenly and slowly as possible to prevent creating a ton of bubbles in my damp box plaster bottom. You don't want to have a ton of bubbles because we are going to try to work most of those out, and they can cause problems, hold clay, just avoiding bubbles is best. After I get it all poured in there I am going to feel around with my hands for any clumps of pieces of plaster that I didn't mix thoroughly in the bucket. It feels pretty good so I'm going to get these gloves off and I'm going to grab my rubbing alcohol spray bottle.
I am using isopropyl alcohol, which is going to be used to break the bubbles at the surface of the plaster. I'm going to tap the sides all around this container with my hand gently for a few minutes to work up the bubbles that are in the plaster. I'm spraying it continuously with this rubbing alcohol because that will cause the bubbles at the surface to pop. One last thing I am going to do is wipe off the sides here so that these pieces don't dry up and fall into my work later. I'm also going to have to add a piece of wood here to the back to get my slab level. The surface I'm working on wasn't totally level, so this will help keep my box level.
After about 30 minutes or so, this should be ready. Now I am just going in here with a damp towel and wiping off any excess bits that could break off later and fall into my work. If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up. If you'd like to see all of my videos way before everybody else, get exclusive content and help support my work, you can become a patron at patreon.com/bluenosetrading. If you thought this video was helpful and you'd like to see a weekly art video you can subscribe to this channel, and I will see you guys next week!
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