Happy!

Well.. what I can tell?! Very very happy with firing results. First time FastFire bronze clay and perfect firing, even without test pieces! But two steps method and 1525F did it. First time double hinges also. Ah feels good:o)

"Reading Room" pendant from homemade bronze and copper clay finished nicely too. Such an interesting kiln patina, so I decided to leave it as it is, just brush off dirt and a little sanding the lamp (as it should be shining:o) Now I should decide about the chain, or find something interesting or assemble myself?!

Non ending experiments

As I had said a few posts below - "it's my way, or.. clays ways". Well.. almost, this time the experiment with hardware and not thinking forward interfered greatly. Who would think (I should, but I didn't) that some forms are soldered. And before going to kiln piece looked nice and strong.

 

 

But ... after kiln.... not so much.

 

 

 I'm trying to be here positive and look for good things, the clay part came out nice, but the hardware.... the bottom part apparently were soldered to get that shape and all solder just ran down and bottom practically separated from cylinder. The bad part is - that all this process documented and was suppose to be tutorial with already 70 pictures ready to use. I told myself- think positive -  and remembered nice saying -“There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.” Tom Krause quotes ( motivational speaker, Teacher and Coach, b.1934). So I decided, this tutorial will be with troubleshooting part:o) and I'll show the result (hopefully) in the next post:o)

 

Meanwhile... experiments with felting continue and this time I've tried another form and more possibilities for decor. This time the piece of coarse canvas was suppose to look like mending, but looked like worn out or that my dog tasted the slipper:o) but I liked that shabby look and decided to leave as it is:o)

 

 

Kiln's pleasant surprises

I love kiln pleasant surprises :o) Probably I haven't expected such coloring from coconut coal, but  really ... it does look natural green :o) The first photo with natural leaf and the second with natural kiln patina. Now I'm in dilemma - to apply lacquer which probably will kill the patina, or just take as a hint that chemical patina will be equivalently nice?

Kiln update

Just short update of the post below. Remember the ugly sealed hand? Here what I've got after secondary firing. No way! I won't seal it again!

No-flake firing box

Long time ago I'd bought from cool tools no-flake firing box . Never needed enough so never had time to fold it. Now with all these experiments my doggie bowls ended very quickly, so I decided to try the foil box. It had one long 12x24"sheet. By instruction you need one 9x12"and another 9.5x12.5". I cut one 9x12"sheet out of piece and folded the base box (with some injuries to my fingers' flesh, this thing is reeeeeaaaally sharp!!!). Now in front of me I had one 12x12"sheet. I decided that if I use just another 9x12"I will have leftover of 6" that will work  perfectly as cover for the boxes (that will close, but not very tightly, the box). So I folded another box, just with lower walls and a little bigger base (both second folds should be shorter than half). The second box I will be able o use as tight cover for first or as a separate box, even better I can stack them one on another and have perfect size in height for my FireFly.  

Long time ago everybody would point that box should be tightly closed, then came some experiments and notes not to close or leave pre-opened lid, or perforate the lid to let the fumes out. With many years my stainless steel lid became very wavy and box never was tightly closed, but I didn't see that causing failures in firing. That means - pre-closed box is OK. Point is - now I have two firing boxes:o)

I've tested the box- NO flakes! Cool!!!

P.S. Some update for the no-flakes box. Hmmm... not sure if I like the "expiration date". Very short:o( after ~5 month of use, all box full of holes. It took ~ 4 years for stainless steel box and a year or two for dollar store steel bowls to get holes. So... my excitement ended pretty much quickly. Back to flakes:o)

Threaded troubles and possibilities

Well ...I thought I was more disciplined, but seem to be not true:o) every day posting it's probably not for me. A few month ago I've begun to play with threaded closure objects. At the beginning there were lockets. A few notes for myself - do not mix different shrinkage clays!!! a lot of fixing after that! but I manage and they all looked and worked well (actually not, one of them still in "fix it area")

 ©2012 Inga Zeitlin

Lockets: copper, bronze, steel

 You see...  I'm a multitasker by nature, can't do just one thing at time. If I'm working with jewelry, Photoshop or driving in the traffic -I listen to audio book, if I'm painting- the music. And looks like that I like multitasking in my jewelry too. I need: it will look nice, adorns me and has additional function, like keeping dear to my hart things, protecting from environmental influence  (metaphysics and physics altogether :o)

  ©2011 Inga Zeitlin

The Sirian Seal pendant

 Or,  as I decided with the threaded closure possibility,  have exchangeable possibilities. From there came the next idea of exchangeable rings and earrings. And here did come next note: do not mix different firing temperature clays in threaded closure objects. Because if you have to do any fixing (or have sintering issues with higher temperature firing clay) you will need to fire all parts again. Any firing will give some small shrinkage and the screw-in and screw-on parts won't  fit.

 ©2012 Inga Zeitlin

Ring: copper, bronze, steel, resin

 You live and learn, so after ring project I was smarter and earrings went nice and smooth:o)

 ©2012 Inga Zeitlin

Earrings: copper, bronze