Recycling Waste Jesmonite to Make New Products
I’m always looking at ways to make my work more sustainably and responsibly so for this blog post, I’m detailing the ways in which I collect and re-use surplus jesmonite leftover from the casting process to make new products.
For my next shop update on Sun 12 May 2024, I’ll be launching a new range of placemats, coasters, knob handles and frames using this recycled ‘waste’ jesmonite to produce a new range of unique, one-off pieces.
I’m pretty excited for this as I’ve been itching to move away from the plain colour finishes I currently stock and try something different.
In this range, you’ll find 2 new finishes:
• A terrazzo style finish made from recycled shards of cured jesmonite, and;
• A super bold and colourful splat style finish made by pouring leftover jesmonite mix from other casting projects into fresh moulds before leaving to cure.
These have been especially fun to make as I have literally no idea how they’re going to turn out until they’re fully cured and I turn them out of their moulds - hence, the pretty wild colour combinations you can see below:
In the video below, I show how I collect all the surplus waste bits of Jesmonite leftover from the casting process (after having cured of course!) in making my new terrazzo style coasters, placemats and furniture knob handles!
As you can see there's quite a lot:
• I need to scrape off dried in bits of Jesmonite from my mixing sticks
• Then there's the leftover mix in the mixing bowls I use
• The moulds themselves - in this case it's the mould I use to cast my furniture knob handles!
• there's always the odd blob which lands on my casting tables which I need to lightly chisel off
All these bits get popped into a tub which I then use a couple of sieves to first off all to remove excess dust (which I do bin) and then separate the debris into a finer particle mix and a coarser mix.
I then mix these particles into a fresh batch of jesmonite to cast my new terrazzo style pieces that will feature in my next shop update on Sun 12 May 2024.
This is just one of the ways I try to waste less and be more sustainable in my studio 👌