Monster Mold

The umbrella carcass I found by the pond last week quickly gathered enough momentum in my mind to result in a complete mental image of the pieces I want to make for the installation. More specifically, I'm going to use the shape of the distorted umbrella to make the forms of the units, each is different, - that then will be used together to build a maze like environment.
Even when I first considered this shape, I knew it would not be simple to make it, but I don't think I fully comprehended the problems inherent in casting such a fragile material as bone china on such a large scale. Bone china is the finest porcelain, with a consistency that is silky soft in liquid form, then goes to unmanagable cream cheese state, then into a brittle and fragile crumbly mess, then, with a wrong move, back to powder and broken shards. But when it turns out it is the purest, smoothest, whitest porcelan with almost a shiny polish on it.
An umbrella is a relatively basic form: a dome shape with slight ribs and indentations. Since I only need the outside, in any other situations a simple one part bowl-shaped mold would function well for most purposes. The complications come form de-molding the bone china porcelain form once the slip is cast in there. It is safe to assume that the material does not have the strenght to hold itself unsupported or be handled in the unfired state. No one here has seen it made into such a large and open bowl shape.
So, after a day of consultations with several expert staff members, and million drawings on the blackboard of the steps involved, a plan was hatched. The mold would have to be a 6 part one with a complex system of supports and interlocking, that allows the whole form to be safely transferred to a kilnshelf while the porcelain is still wet and also allows the parts be removed one by one as it dries. Everybody got excited when I presented the idea and the challenges with it. It seems that the staff here really lives for interesting technical solutions. The plans got so complicated that after days of thinking I would wake from sleep to realize that a new solution just generated 2 other new problems. The other nagging thought is that I might jut get away with just a simple one part mold...
But I went ahead with the plan. Being here is about experience after all... (or so I say to myself). I've never done a mold this complex on this scale that needs this kind of precision. The umbrella I got for it is a kids' one, but still ends up being about 2.5' (80cm) in diameter. I figured, I will do it slow and deal with the challenges one by one as they arise, instead of trying to anticipate everything at once.
I know only one person who likes mold making, for the rest of us it is a necessity. Into the 3rd day of working on it, when it started looking like it may come together, I finally started enjoying it. Yes, it is messy, it's tedious, it's heavy and hard to work with, but every problem can be solved in a variety of clever ways. It has been a great learning experience; a crash course in advanced mold making. It was finished in 3 nights and 2 days with only some cleaning left to do. It's a little over half of my weight. We still have to figure out how to hold it while putting about 15-20 liters (maybe more, maybe less, I better measure the volume before I go any further...) slip into it.
I will start a second mold of a different umbrella later this week. This time to test if the same could have been done as a one part mold. It will be interesting.