During a composites project, I created a bowl using 2 different techniques.

First I needed a mold to work from which I created using Rhino and 3D milling, creating the toolpaths in RhinoCAM.

The first technique I used was the 'no bake clay' method using silicates. This was taught by a natural composites expert in Barcelona, Joaquin Melchor. 

I used a combination of potassium silicate (binder) and clay and marble (load). the mixture I used was 1:1 water and potassium silicate and then added a powder mix of the load at a ratio of 30:30:60 (clay 0-0.8mm : marble largest grain : clay 0-1mm) until to correct consistency was achieved (so you can just squeeze out the liquid and slightly crumbly).

The aim of this mix was to fill all the gaps that are present in each of the individual components with the binder to hold them all together. I painted my MDF mold with plastic paint to seal it and then covered the area I was going to line the clay with vaseline as an extra protective layer.

The next piece I created using hessian, epoxy and a vaccuum table. I built up the required layers, combined the epoxy and hessian and placed under the table until the epoxy set. This made a very durable and easy reproducible dish. It would be interesting to develop this idea further and play around with bright colours sandwiched in the middle to be revealed at the edges.