Design Casting Plaster Steps

Design Casting: How to make a Plaster Pencil Holder:

Supplies

Ruler
Pen/Pencil
Tape
Scissors
Plaster
Polypropylene

Sketching Out the Mold

Using a pencil and a ruler draw out a hexagonal prism, start my drawing a hexagon and then add a rectangle to the top of each side.

Building the Mode

At this point the mold will be sketched out properly, try and adjust the rectangles on the outside to go up in the air, try and make all the ends touch but not overlap. Once they are close enough try and start by taping them together, finish by taping the whole mold all around the outside, so no plaster slips out.

Creating the Core

Measure out about 6cm, so the cylinder is able to make a sizeable hole for the eraser, roll it up and tape it so it does not fall apart. Place the cylinder on the card and trace out a circle to make the exact circle size. Cut it out and tape it to the mold, after doing this tape everything to create a fully taped core so nothing gets through. Put it next to the mold to check if it is tall enough and has the right width.

Adding the Plaster to the Molding and Placing the Core

To start get a bucket and add 3 filled yogurt cups of water and then add 3 filled yogurt cups of flower and then mix it up until it become a white liquid. Pour that into the mold and right away add the core into the plaster about a centimeter above the bottom. Wait about 20 minutes until it should be sufficiently hardened.

Creating the Product

After the plaster hardens try and pull by wiggling the core out so it does not ruin your hole in the middle, if it is taken out roughly it may break the plaster. After the core is taken out sand the plasters sides and bottom to make it smooth, because the product is a pencil case, there needs to be holes drilled around the eraser holder. Make the holes bigger than the pencil is because the pencils need to stick up. Make four identical holes 1 at each quarter of the plasters top.

Final Product

To see the signs of the product being finished, figure out if it checks all the bullet points:

Smooth on all sides
Eraser fits
Pencils stick up straight

If these have all been done, the product is done and is usable.