porcelain firing

Susie Thompson · 2006-10-24T10:57:31+00:00

I've built something which is very, very fragile. It will finally need firing to 1250C to mature the clay - at which point I suspect that the clay will be beginning to 'soften' and not be able to take its own weight.What I need to do is to biscuit fire to a sufficiently high enough temperature so that I can safely tuck ceramic fibre in/under certain areas to support the clay at 1250C.If I biscuit fire under 1000C, which is what I usually do with most things so that I can check for cracks, etc, the clay will still be too fragile/brittle to allow me anywhere near. So, how high can I take it to have enough strength?This is unknown territory for me. Help, please.Susieps I hope that soon I'll have a website so that I can post images of the things I make that give me this sort of problem/headache/learning curve!

Oct 24, 2006 27 Replies

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Susie 19 years ago

In message , Steve Mills writes

Morning Steve

I've just been out to the kiln and had a quick look. The dragons are through the first firing to 1080C in one piece. I'm going to check that there are no cracks, etc. I'm going to surround them in sheets of ceramic fibre - under their tails, their armpits and wings - and fire them up to 1240C later today. I don't think I'll be able to get near them with sand paper or even an emery board, but tweezers and a brush might well get residual fibre off. Failing which, could my dragons have sprouted whiskers in the kiln?

All the group's postings have been so helpful and the latest one from you has given me more confidence that this is going to work. Thanks.

Best wishes Susie

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Steve Mills 19 years ago

Dear Susie,

It's been fun, educational for us all, and good exercise for the grey matter!!

Have a good firing and let us all know how it goes....maybe pictures on one of the available sites like Flikr (sp) or Yahoo.

Steve

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Susie 19 years ago

In message , Steve Mills writes

Hello everybody

I'm more than a little relieved to tell you that the dragons have made it OK. Wings uplifted and outstretched and heads held high! I've got some pictures for you to see and hope to be able to put them on Flikr in the next day or so. I'll post the link when I have it.

From a much more relaxed and less stressed (until the next time)

Susie

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DKat 19 years ago

Yeah!!! Very much looking forward to the pictures. Donna

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Susie 19 years ago

In message , DKat writes

Hello Donna and everybody

I've had a go at putting some pictures up on

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If you put in a search for arrandragons, you should find them. The Siblings are the ones that have just given me all the angst. I've added some other pictures to give a wider idea of the sort of things that I make. I'll be adding/changing pictures as I get used to doing this. The images seem to have come out darker than I expected. I've never done this before, so it's a learning curve - straight uphill!. Let me know what you think, please.

Regards Susie

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Keith Thompson 19 years ago

In message , Susie writes

Apologies for follow up posting straightaway, but need to get things right.

If you look at

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you should find the pictures there. If you have a problem at all let me know.

Regards Susie

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Steve Mills 19 years ago

Well done Susie.

Steve

In article , Keith Thompson writes

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DKat 19 years ago

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