Dry inlay using copper and bronze clay

Another thing we did in Carol's class was Hadar's inlay technique.  Again, this wasn't the first time I've done this technique but I did have some things to learn to improve my pieces.

Carol refers to the two inlay techniques as "dry" and "wet."   In the dry technique a dry piece of clay is pushed into a wet piece of clay.

After firing and polishing, the two metals look very much alike.  Adding Baldwin's patina to the piece brings out the contrast by darkening the copper.  Baldwins has no effect on the bronze.  

I had never done the dry technique before so this was a first.  What was also a first was how much polishing was required on the inlay process.  Yes, I've done this before but had never polished mine as highly as we did this weekend.  (That Carol was a slave driver....... LOL!)

Carol demonstrating the polishing process with Pete looking on.

Testing the freshly fired pieces.

One of the first things we did was test the pieces to make sure they were fully sintered (completely solid metal.)  That was done by taking a coarse wheel to the back of them.  

My next post will talk about the "wet" inlay technique.