Jere Lykins on thu 5 feb 98
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
My daughter gave my wife and I a bust of herself which she sculpted in
terracota. We love it and have it in our living room. It is green and
the question of firing it to bisque is at hand. It's now been sitting
around at room temp for about 2 months so it's probably about as dry as
it's gonna be. I could fire it in my electric kiln on my slow ramp
setting (50 degrees per hour then hold at 300 for 5 hours then 75
degrees per hour to 1950) This takes about 30 hours. Is there a
better slow fire formula. The other possibility is to not fire it at
all. I really treasure this piece and don't want to damage it. What do
ya'll think would be best?
Thanks
Greg
Oregon
__________________________________________________________________________
Dear Greg:
It may be possible to hollow out your bust by laying it on a thick piece of foam
and carving out the excess clay from underneath the base, going on up into the h
If getting in there is impossible maybe this idea won't work, but if you can get
hand in there, you could use loop tools or even a dremel tool to remove the clay
depending on how dry it is. I have done this before and it worked for me.
Reduce the clay to a reasonable thickness... say 1/2 inch... and fire slowly.
You might even consider removing the back of the scull by sawing or cutting it,
hollowing it out, and if it is too dry to reassemble... fire the pieces and glu
back together using epoxy, and touch up the seam with paint. I have also done th
it worked.
Good luck!
Jere Lykins
Snowwhite on tue 10 feb 98
If your bust is hollow and has vent holes you should not have a problem
firing it. I use a slow fire that takes 8 hrs. to ^06. Slower is
definitely safer so if you cherish this work bake it slow. The risk of
not firing it is at the greenware stage it is very fragile. If there
are air bubbles in the bust with no way to vent that portion will pop
(these are repairable after bisque firing but not desirable). If the
bust is not hollow or filled with paper do not fire it pieces over 1"
thick will explode.
Good Luck
| |
|
