John Bandurchin on tue 20 jul 04
Hi Clayarters
I'm making some tile-like items that are to hang on walls. When the =
clay is still soft I carve a groove in the back and embed a wire sort of =
across the groove to be a hanger.
My question is - what kind of wire will be suitable. I've only made a =
few of these pieces so fat
and have used kanthal element wire which I know won't melt in the =
firing, but am wondering if
other kinds of wire - steel, copper etc will still be wire instead of a =
puddle of metal after a cone 6 or 7 firing.
Anyone have any knowledge on this???
John Bandurchin
Baltimore Ontario
Anne Webb on tue 20 jul 04
hey john..
we make raku tiles with an integral wire hangers. we carve a little notch
in the back of the tile while still soft enough to do so, like you do, then
stick a little U or loop or nichrome wire about a centimetre long, into the
clay at the bottom of this little notch. you would use a lot less wire doing
this than if you run a strand all the way across your tile.
you can get the nichrome wire in different guages (we usually use pretty
thin wire for this) from pottery suppliers or little corner ceramic shops.
if not you can order it by catalogue or online. sometimes they have the wire
already cut and formed into little U shapes for you. or you can get it in
spools as well which is cheaper and goes much further.
depending on the size of the tile will depend on whether you will need one
or 2 nichrome loops. small tiles can be hung from one loop, for larger
tiles we put two little loops anywhere from 5 to 7 inches apart, then once
its fired and ready to go we attach regular old picture hanging wire (we
usually use the untwisted variety, but both kinds will work). the picture
wire doesnt oxidize or rust that i've seen.
hope that's a help.
have a great day. :)
anne
>Hi Clayarters
>
>I'm making some tile-like items that are to hang on walls. When the clay
>is still soft I carve a groove in the back and embed a wire sort of across
>the groove to be a hanger.
>My question is - what kind of wire will be suitable. I've only made a few
>of these pieces so fat
>and have used kanthal element wire which I know won't melt in the firing,
>but am wondering if
>other kinds of wire - steel, copper etc will still be wire instead of a
>puddle of metal after a cone 6 or 7 firing.
>Anyone have any knowledge on this???
>
>John Bandurchin
>Baltimore Ontario
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william schran on wed 21 jul 04
John wrote:>....but am wondering if other kinds of wire - steel,
copper etc will still be wire instead of a puddle of metal after a
cone 6 or 7 firing. Anyone have any knowledge on this???<
A quick google search came up with this temp chart for metals:
http://www.wika.ca/wika/products/supportfiles/material/I3.PDF
Of course one would have to know exactly want type of metal they had.
It would seem the best, most accessible metal to use would be
stainless steel.
Bill
Snail Scott on wed 21 jul 04
At 01:09 PM 7/20/04 -0400, you wrote:
>I'm making some tile-like items that are to hang on walls. When the clay
is still soft I carve a groove in the back and embed a wire sort of across
the groove to be a hanger.
>My question is - what kind of wire will be suitable. I've only made a few
of these pieces so fat
>and have used kanthal element wire which I know won't melt in the firing...
Don't fire the wire. Leave a channel for
it, and put the wire in place after firing.
Braided steel wire (like picture-hanging
wire) is my favorite, but many kinds will
do.
-Snail
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