This demonstration explores diverse strategies for using handmade paper and pulp to create dynamic three-dimensional forms using rigid, flexible, positive, and negative molds. Focusing on the unique properties of high-shrinkage pulps, the session covers techniques for wrapping wet sheets around linear armatures to create taut, translucent skins, as well as methods for balancing unrestrained warping against controlled, selective restraint. Additionally, practical tips will be shared on how to adapt these sculptural techniques for artists and educators working without access to a Hollander beater.

Instructor Bio

Holly Laws is a multidisciplinary sculptor whose practice is driven by experimentation with non-traditional media. She utilizes labor-intensive processes rooted in traditional craft, specialized trades, and domestic labor, blending techniques such as leather working, papermaking, and crystal cultivation with materials such as scagliola, graphite, and reflective highway safety spheres. Laws holds a BFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Central Arkansas, where she teaches three-dimensional art and foundations.

This demonstration presents ExothermiCast, a mold-integrated aluminothermic iron casting process developed for sculpture fabrication. In ExothermiCast, a 3D-printed PLA positive integrates the combustion chamber, sprue network, and sculpture geometry into a single form, which is then ceramic shell invested and subjected to a burnout cycle prior to casting. Iron is produced directly within the mold cavity through aluminothermic reduction of iron oxide — the same thermochemical reaction used in industrial thermite welding — eliminating the need for a conventional furnace or external metal source. The process operates at approximately 2,500°C and yields cast iron components with geometry derived directly from the printed form.

Attendees will observe the complete process documentation including 3D-printed casting unit construction, information about creating a ceramic shell slurry that doesn't need to be stirred every 5 minutes, and a live aluminothermic casting event. Additional process documentation and material samples will be available for examination.

More information about the process is available at exothermicast.com.

Instructor Bio

Andy Huss is a sculptor and educator based in Conway, Arkansas. After earning degrees in sculpture from Northern Michigan University and the University of Michigan, he studied under several sculptors before relocating to Arkansas. He has taught at multiple central Arkansas universities and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Art at the University of Central Arkansas. His work can be viewed at Boswell Mourot Fine Art in Little Rock and at husssculpture.com.