Why so wet?

From comments shared by other doll makers on the various Doll related Boards, I’m not the only one having problems with my castings not wanting to come out of the molds. I frequently leave the pieces in the mold for 24 hours, and they’re still wet, and if I try to hurry things along, naturally I end up messing up the casting and having to start over.

The first thing everyone asks is where the molds are stored. In a damp basement or garage? Or someplace with climate control? Actually, they’re on shelves in a spare room that is regulated like the rest of the house by our heat pump. They were in the same place last year at this time, and I wasn’t having any problem then.

What about the porcelain slip? Am I using something new? Have I thinned it too much? Again, I’m using the same product I was using successfully last year at this time, but just to test myself, I poured dolls with both Bell’s slip and Seeley’s to see what the difference there might be. I was pleased to have an excuse to use up the last bit of these other brands that I’ve had on hand for several years before I tried Ultra Chic and decided that I preferred it. I had exactly the same issues with both of them. And, by the way, I can now confirm that Ultra Chic’s Parisian Chocolate and Seeley’s French Chocolate (or is it Bell’s???) are indistinguishable! I absolutely love that color!

Am I pouring my molds too often and not giving them a chance to properly dry out? Again, no, I’m not. At the very most, I may pour a mold twice in a twenty four hour period if I mess up the first casting, but as a rule it’s no more frequent than once a week, and may be many weeks apart. So I should be okay there too.

Do I pour on rainy days? Yes, of course I do. I live in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, not the high desert area, and since I teach doll classes, I don’t have much choice. When I need a piece, I need it. But there’s nothing new about that. I’ve lived here for years and this has always been the case. Naturally I get better, or I guess I should say faster, results in the summer once it turns hotter and as dry as it ever gets here, but again that’s standard. So what the heck’s the problem?

It seems to me it has to boil down to humidity. Is this year damper than usual? I guess so. I just know it’s usually warmer by now and I’ve normally had to start watering my flowers at this point, but other that, I just can’t say. And I always pour year round anyway without all these problems. We’ve decided to put an electric heater in the mold room to get it hotter than the rest of the house and see if that dries them out a bit more. Hope that’ll take care of the problem.

I have, however, learned a couple of useful things during this period of frustration and trial and error. As you all know, if a piece sets in the mold too long, there may be some cracking around smaller areas where the moisture is drawn out more quickly, such as around fingers or toes. I’ve tried to dampen such areas and smush over the cracks with other products, but even though it appeared at first that it would be successful, they frequently reopened during firing. I’m having more success with the Ultra Chic in this area. I even managed to fill in a fairly sizeable crack that opened during the bisque firing behind a knee by filling it in with spare from another casting, smoothing it over, and firing it again at a cone 6. I can’t even see where the crack was!

Doll making is a continuous learning process. I guess that’s one of the things we love about it. It keeps us on our toes. I enjoy it more every day!