Working with Mold Making

 In a previous project, I had molded a pack of my dad's cigarettes out of clay. I wanted to attempt to now reproduce the cigarette portion of this piece, so I could then fill up a wooden box with reproduced cigarettes for a commentary on how the production of cigarettes can and ultimately kill you. However, this did not work out the way I intended it to. 

The first step in the process went well. I created a box using leftover scraps from a foam and plaster project, taping up the sides and hotgluing them so no silicon would leak. I used a different type of clay to start the mold, pressing down on the molded cigarettes to indent it, carving out where it needed to sit and then making sure it fit snug inside, so no silicon would drip underneath when I poured it in. Before I did anything, I was advised to add little lumps of clay to help with the silicon and make sure I wasn't using a ton. I mixed silicon together, and poured it over, waiting a day between to make sure it set. I did do this process wrong at first- I was supposed to make "keys"- little indentations where the silicon could separate from itself once I poured the top half over- but due to my mold ending up so lumpy, it worked out.

Once the silicon was dry, I poured plaster over it. This process was less tedious than the silicon mixing. I waited another day and flipped the mold over, repeating with another layer of silicon and another layer of plaster. This is where my project was flipped a bit upside down. The second layer of silicon seemed to have been bad and even after waiting almost a week once my mold was done and I poured plaster in to finally made a set of cigarettes, my cigarettes came out still wet and crumbled into a little mess in my hands. They were half formed, like the plaster had been sucked up and the mold was wet, as if someone had poured water in it.

In a desperate attempt to save my project, I tried to make a quick mold out of the clay that I had originally formed the cigarettes out of and a hot glue stick. I figured that I could carve away at the results of the hot glue stick to achieve the cigarette look.

This seemed to work well, with no leaks and it filled to the top. However, after a day had passed, I came back to a complete brick. I tried to carve it and break it, but it was not breaking.

In an attempt to comment on how destructive cigarette addictions can be, my process through this journey also felt like a strong commentary on addiction in general. Addiction to not cigarettes but perhaps impulse. I have a strong impulse to get things right, to fix everything. I have OCD and luckily it is managed but I believed this project was going to be the death of me. I want every project I do to have meaning and look good, but I have had to learn that my addiction to being someone who is perfect is not who I am meant to be. I am meant to be like this lumpy brick of plaster- a form that could possible be carved away at, but may never be.