So, I've read about many people having firing disasters. I'm not big on wasting money, so I've been pretty careful following directions, being cautious. Last night I finished making a piece that was to be submitted to the Metal Clay Heads team challenge (a group on Etsy). I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that you should let copper and bronze clays dry for 24 hours before firing. Well, I couldn't wait. I had my piece on a cup warmer for over an hour and figured that was good enough. Obviously, since I'm writing about a disaster, things didn't turn out so good. It was to be a flag of sorts, with the words "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" etched into it, with a copper star. After firing I was going to fire a thin silver frame to go around the star and rivet it on.
As you can see, the piece is covered with tiny little bubbles and air holes. The copper star did not fuse, and when I tested the bezel, it came away from the piece. Underneath it was unsintered clay. That will teach me to ignore directions!
The other thing that did not work was the text. I etched it into the wet clay with a fine needle tool. The words are almost completely lost. Maybe I'll try to do this again with a fatter needle tool...
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