Bronzclay Pt I

Last night after Kim, the kids and I dyed some zany Easter Iggs, we played around a bit with the Bronzclay. Both of us were a bit dismayed at the actual handling of the stuff. (If you don't know her, my neighbor Kim has a background in ceramics---so clay is her thing.) Here's what we came up with:



I've had all these ideas but then froze when it actually hit my hands. It's more economical than the silver clay, but it's still causes you to pause and wonder if you'd really like whatever you made to live forever as bronze.

This morning I woke up and found this old metal dish in my assemblage box.


I used some room temp vulcanizing putty and made a mold of the center of the dish. After the mold set I pressed that large circle piece into the clay.

(Had to put this photo in to show you how technical mold making gets. Folks, that's a genuine "Texan" truck-stop tumbler. The back of my mold even says so!)



I activated the carbon (which surrounds the bronze to prevent oxidation while it sinters) in the kiln this morning. I will wait for that to cool down before throwing these pieces in the "sink", stilting it and then firing for 9 hours. The sink was shiny and new this morning. After sitting in 1550 degrees, it got a little charred. The carbon I purchased will produce a rainbow patina on the metal it fires with. You can see a hint of that patina on the outside of the sink. Patinas are SO what I LOVE about metals!

I'm sure it will be an adventure to open my kiln tomorrow morning. Hopefully it's not all mush---as I've seen can happen due to all sorts of variables. I'll post photos of whatever does come out tomorrow morning---We'll see....