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These cookies do not store any personal information. Non-necessary Non-necessary. Once an item has been fired, additional firings do not harm the metal. If you have fired pieces that you'd like to combine, they can be pasted together and fired.
First clean the items to be attached very well. Give them a rough satin finish in the areas to be attached. Make lavender paste to "glue" the sintered bronze pieces together. Make a very thick paste, but instead of mixing it with lavender water use straight lavender essential oil. Mix the paste to the consistency of soft peanut butter a tiny bit softer than normal paste.
Use a dropper as a dipper to pick up the oil a drop at at time. Cut cocktails straws work or a pipette work well for picking up a drop of oil or water. Add a drop at a time to the clay and mix with a palette knife. Fire at the 3-Hour schedule. If you add unfired components to pre-fire bronze, scratch brush the bronze and attach the component with lavender oil paste. Use the firing schedule for the unfired components thickness. Oxides will build up on the outside of your firing pan.
These oxides will flake off and accumulate at the bottom of the kiln. Vacuum the inside of your kiln regularly to keep it clean. Wipe the thermocouple with a damp rag or sponge whenever you vacuum to keep your kiln in top shape. A thermocouple will not read as accurately as it ages an older thermocouple will fire hotter than it reads , so test fire your kiln every 75 firings using cones to verify the accuracy of the firings.
BRONZclay brand clay is fired within a narrow range of temperatures. Going too far below or over the correct temperature can result in a firing failure.
The photos below show how to tell if you need to raise or lower your target temperature to correct the problem. This sample shows the surface of what appears to be a successful firing. The surface is smooth. There are no pits, cracks, dents or bubbles. This is the back of the same piece. The back shows dents where it laid on the carbon.
We were able to eliminate the dents by lowering the target temperature by 15 degrees. Here is a piece showing bubbles that are caused by overheating. You can see a color difference in the area that is overheated. It's a crescent moon shape on the right. You can see where the metal began to bubble. Here is the back of the same piece. You can better see how the metal bubbled up, then cooled. When you see this type of bubbling, it is an indication that the kiln is too hot.
Here is another example of over-heating. This one shows signs of melting. The pieces has lost a lot of it's detail. Look at about the 3 o'clock position. You'll see where a bubble erupted, broke through and then collapsed. The is the back of the sample above. The back of this piece should have been smooth. Instead, it shows signs of melting. This is a close up of the surface of a test ring.
The surface has a very grainy appearance. It's attractive, but still technically over-heated. This piece is under-fired. It rings like metal when tapped lightly with a hammer When broken open, the insides are metallic, but very brittle. This piece was not fired long enough. Since thickness determines the rate of heat for firing BRONZclay, be sure to measure your piece at it's thickest point to determine the correct heat rate.
This sample not fired long enough for it's thickness. It had no ring to it when tapped with a metal object. The piece felt solid, but with light hammering broke the piece to reveal the un-sintered center. The insides are powder, not sintered like the sample above. Again, this is an example of a piece that was not fired long enough. It's very important to measure BRONZclay items at their thickest point to determine the rate of heat for your particular kiln model.
This sample was dug from the red hot carbon and quenched in water. It was then hammered to test it's strength. The thermal shock of quenching has made this piece brittle, but it's a different brittle than a piece that has been under-fired. Thermal shock brittleness gives a"sticky" quality to the metal. You can definitely feel it when hammering. It has more of a dull thudding sound when it should be ringing. Brittleness from cooling too slowly or from cooling too quickly is revealed by a grainy break.
This sample was fired inside a fiber blanket and then buried in activated carbon. The fiber blanket was sucked tight against the piece as the oxygen was sucked away by the carbon.
The binder in the clay has carbonized. Pieces can also be carbonized if they are heated at too low a temperature or if not enough oxygen is present during heating. Learn how to make slip, fire and finish this easy to use copper metal clay.
There are many different Aussie Metal Clays; each with a different firing guide. Please click on the product page for the corresponding firing information. All colors can be fired together with Five Star Clay! Cyprus Copper Clay Firing Guide Offered in lump wet form, this clay is waterbased, air dries and fires to. Read Guide. Sintering Metal Clay Learn about how to ensure your metal clay is firing properly and reaching full sinter.
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