So…. My second session with BronzClay netted pretty disastrous results. Upon looking at what I fished out of the charcoal, my first thoughts were that everything disintegrated.
What happened, technically, however is much more interesting to me. Without knowing what HAPPENED, I don’t know what to change.
BTW, I am using Rio Grande’s ready to go (not powder) BronzClay.
I guess I’ll try the obvious first… was my holding temp too high? Since my kiln tends to run hot, I went with 1516 (close to Hadar’s 1520 suggestion if you see blistering) rather than the package recommended 1550. I was ramping at 365 per hour. I’ll lower that to 280 for starters.
The backs of my first pieces were definitely bumpy… like the sixth photo here. But then maybe this is what pieces look like if they don’t get high enough heat. Seems like everything could go either way. Ha ha ha!
Anyway, here is a pic of what’s left of experiment #2:
I had a thick piece in there as well as thinner pieces. It broke in half as soon as I lifted it from the charcoal and doesn’t resemble anything metallic.
I have tried different variations of firing for my bronzclay. I kept trying until I ran out of the 100 gram packet and never ended up with one good piece.
ReplyDelete