Francesco Feltrin

“Dip Casting” is about a new way of casting ceramics. Based on the use of a new kind of mould it allows the exploration of a new series of techniques in the production of ceramics.

In the “Dip Casting” process a mould is dipped inside of a container of slip, as opposed to slip being poured into a mould. After dipping, the mould is removed via a collapsing mechanism, to avoid any cracking on the ceramic piece which shrinks when drying. Through this method, it is possible to interact with a ‘leather hard’ piece of porcelain and create a wide spectrum of different solutions. It is also possible overlay several layers of ceramic, dipping the mould several times, achieving a multilayered and possibly a multicoloured effect, which is very hard and extremely expensive to obtain with traditional methods. Due to the mechanism of the machines, I am designing it is also possible to dip the mould in at different angles and cut through the layers of slip, applying regular or random cuts. The slip can then be poured randomly on the mould, achieving an infinite spectrum of effects. The mould, which is removable, can be combined with other pieces creating potentially a series of objects which change with the different configurations of the mould.