Zoe Niverson, 2025 Education Department Intern
We’re back in the studio, inspired by our current exhibit featuring sand cast glass. Ancient Methods, Modern Visions: Sand Cast Glass features several artists and is on view until May 18th. While considering the process of sand casting—pouring molten glass into pliable, textured molds—Zoe Niverson experimented with how to do it at home. Follow along with this step by step process of mold making!
Materials needed:
- Modeling clay
- Things with fun textures or shapes to push into the clay
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Markers (optional)
To start, the modeling clay will need to be warmed up by pinching and rolling it in your hands, making it malleable. Pick a color you like!
Use enough clay so that you can push objects down into it and make interesting textures. This mold will be filled with hot glue, so make sure you give yourself enough space.
Roll your clay out into a thick slab, and start pushing things into your clay to give it fun texture and shapes for your finished piece! I used rocks, unique buttons with little holes, and a rubber stamp, creating give deep crevices for the hot glue to seep down into. See what you can find around your house or outside!
Next, build up a wall around where the glue will sit, so that it doesn’t flow over the edge.
Now is the fun part! Start filling your new mold with hot glue. This will also give your piece some interesting squiggly textures so be creative with it!
Once you’re sure the glue has dried (be careful!), you can demold it! There might be some clay left in the crevices of the piece, but that is okay. Wipe off as much as possible, and you can use something like a toothpick to scrape out bits of clay that may be left.
Once cleaned, you can add some color to it! Markers can help bring out that fun texture you added with the interesting objects you found!
What would you create with this mold making process?
For more inspiration, Ancient Methods, Modern Visions: Sand Cast Glass, on view until May 18th.