Tuesday 19 May 2009

Playing with Copper Clay

A while back I talked about Copper Clay. I've had some for a while now but hadnt had time to just have a play, but yesterday I did. After my first experiences with Bronze Clay - where I took hours on what I made only to find them split or cracked after firing- I decided to keep my first attempts with the Copper Clay simple.

The picture shows Copper CLay on the left and a Bronze Clay Piece the right. Although I've experienced the Bronze clay splitting (Its like it stretches during firing) I've never seen my pieces break like this has. All my pieces this time were fired using a different firing schedule - which has clearly not been successful for these pieces - I think my impatience possibly had something to do with it.....

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These bronze disks above have also been fired - I've had them kicking about for too long!! These are how they looked after their first firing. Some of them have the most pretty patina! i have something in mind for these. I'll be trying it later today! Fingers crossed it works!


7 comments:

Nicola said...

Oooh looking forward to seeing how they turn out when they're all beaded up :)
I had similar results with my first Bronze attempts but found a slower ramp helped with subsequent firings.
I put the firing times & ramps on my PMC blog and would love to see what yours were for comparison :)
Nicola xx

Lynne Glazzard said...

Oh no! I have only had one go with the copper so far, will bring it with me if I remember. I just wanted to see what it was like to enamel on...... and it was just the same as any other bit of copper, shedding oxide everywhere :)

Alison Reid said...

I think I'll stick with silver!!!

Can you email me the details for Saturday, timings and stuff! ali x

Eve Smith said...

i have not worked with bronze clay yet, i loved the cuff you made and it broke, it must be soo frustating, with all the hard work you put in,x

The Little Bead Shop said...

Thanks for the comments everyone. its fun trying out new clays. I'll check out your blog Nicola. Hope you remember to bring yours Lynne!

I need to do that cuff again, I think I know why it split like it did. See you soon Ali!

:)

Anonymous said...

So, is it just as strange to work with as the bronze then? Not sure if i could cope with having my heart broken by having something I've slaved for hours over implode ...

Saffie said...

Hi Emma, congrats on magazine articles and tuts excellent read. I have tagged you see my blog for details
Sam xx