This week I wanted to make a 3 dimensional form. I've never managed to get one to come out without horrible cracks..here's crossing my fingers. I have a big lump of copprclay that has been sitting in a jar for while. I have had problems getting it to fire properly..which is why I bought a different brand of clay. I felt the need to use up the last of the stuff I had laying around. I rolled out and textured my clay, cutting 2 hearts that will make the top and bottom of the heart "box" I plan to make.
I dried the hearts and then rolled out and textured more clay. I then cut out a thin strip of the textured clay and used slip to hold up the wall of my box.
After the walls dried, I attached the top of the "box."
Here is the fully assembled heart box.
After having several pieces of copprclay not come out of the kiln fully sintered, I did some research and found an article that suggested doing a "prefire" to burn off the binder before putting them in the kiln for the full firing schedule. I ran a 500 degree/hour ramp to 540 degrees, and held it for 15 minutes. Afterwords, the piece was black and brittle, and I put it directly into the carbon and fired it for the full schedule.
Here it is, fresh from the kiln, all shiny and fully cooked!!!
Well, there WERE a few cracks on the back of the piece.
So I rolled out some polymer clay and textured it to match what was already on the hearts to cover up the cracks. I plan to keep this as a personal piece, so I don't care if one side is a bit sub-par.
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