Amazing Technicolor Bronzclay

The color from this batch had me thinking of the Amazing Technicolor Coat- only for Bronzclay. There were some unfortunate mistakes on my part, as you can see some bubbles/blisters- I don't recall leaving any air trapped between layers, guess I'll have to be more vigilant next time. Or it could be the temp. now that I think of it- I forgot to lower my kiln by 5 degrees like I normally do..could this be the culprit for my beads' wart-like appearance? The leaf pendant has that amazing color on the front and back. I placed it on the very bottom and middle of the firing chamber- et voila!
As always, after my firing is done I try and get out to the studio to crack the lid slightly to let the heat escape until the inside reaches 1000*. Then I take the lid off of the kiln and let it continue to cool- this is also the point that I normally take the lid off the firing chamber, but I left it on this time. Before, I would wait until the interior reached 600* and would remove the chamber w/ my pieces -carefully!- and let it continue to cool for a few minutes before sifting the pieces from the charcoal.
This morning I was distracted and sorta forgot about the bronzclay after I took the kiln lid off and the interior read around 285* when I got back to it. When I took the lid off the chamber, I set it on my kiln lid and left it too cool to room temp. since I was feeding my son. And these were the colors I had after I sifted them from the charcoal!

Bronzclay Textured Hollow Forms

Today, I made a dent in my pile of hollow forms that needs to be textured. Focusing on the smaller pieces made it seem a little more manageable, they're in the kiln right now and hope to have a nice batch of beads in the morning ready to be made into a bracelet or earrings.

Maybe I managed to get so much done today in an effort to avoid having to pack for my trip to Indiana on Wednesday. Grr, how I dread doing the airport and flying shuffle w/ a baby. Here's to a smooth and uneventful travel day.

Success with Copper Clay

I finally had success with Hadar's Copper Clay- this time I made sure to follow her new firing schedule to the letter that she posted on her blog. This is just a quick pic of my small pile of copper clay beads- a couple are from a friend that wasn't too scared to let me try and fire them for her.
Now I may cook up the other pieces that I was too scared to take a chance of ruining.