The Jury is in on Hadar's copper clay

I love Hadar's copper clay!

Copper Clay

Since Art Clay makes a copper clay that can be torch fired or fired on an open shelf for 30 minutes it is now possible to do a class in copper in one day.

An earlier post featured a work by Phil that had cracked and broken during firing. Phil was in my first ever copper clay class. We all struggled with the clay that day. It seemed very stiff, hard to condition and cracked easily. Art clay copper has a shelf life of six months and we were wondering if the clay was old (even though I had just ordered it a few weeks earlier.) Contrary to my first experience with kiln firing this clay, this batch stuck to the shelf and had to be pried off. Most of the fire scale dropped right off when dropped into water. The rest came off in the "pickle" solution. (What I used wasn't real pickle solution but something I bought from Cool Tools that is safer.)

Well, that experience rather bothered me. I want my students to have the best possible experience and come away from the class with something they are happy with. I think they were basically happy with the class but not without a struggle and a real learning experience.

I had two other packs of copper clay that were ordered from a different vendor. So last Thursday, Ginnie (who was also in that class) and I tried again. This batch did seem different. It wasn't quite as stiff. It did still require quite a bit of water to make it pliable (like the silver clay.) Quite a bit more.... about three times as much. Since the jury is still out on copper clay I stuck to making very basic simple pieces. (Got to get over this!)

Another thing we did this time was make our pieces a couple of cards thicker than we did last time. Silver clay is good at two cards thick but the copper seems best at four or more. (Three cards is do-able, but four is better.) Even with the added thickness, the pieces are very light when fired. If less cards are used, there isn't enough heft to hang nicely on a chain. Less cards are good though for earrings.

The final thing I did differently was to put some firing paper (used for glass..... just can't think of what it's called) on the kiln shelf. This time the pieces slid right off the shelf.

The pickle solution had been left in the pot and of course was cold. But since it was the end of the day and we wanted to get home, we dropped in our pieces. They basked in there for four days and were very clean.

Ginnie and I were both happier with the results this time. The copper clay is never going to rival the ease of working with silver. The surface of the copper clay isn't as nice either (maybe I'm missing something) but time will tell.

Thought I'd share some of the copper earrings I made that day. People do seem to like the copper jewelry. It's something different.

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

Bangle bracelets remind me of gypsy jewelry.

Barbara Becker Simon was wearing a set of bronze and copper bangles when she came to Pittsburgh last year. They were textured not only on the surface but on the edges too. I really liked them and wanted to try making some.

Debra Weld had patterns already worked out for bangles to allow for the shrinkage factor of the clay. Using the size of Debra's pattern, I made a quick bangle. Again, I didn't spend a lot of time on the design. I wanted to work out the firing dilemma associated so often with these base metal clays. Now that I know it works, I'm ready to make some nice ones similar to Barbara's (Man they were nice.)

This bangle was made with CopprClay and was in the six hour firing I did the day before. It does take a lot of clay to make one of these, so it's best to start with a fresh full package of clay. I want to make some bronze bangles too, but don't look forward to the extended firing time. I really need a different kiln if I want to do much base metal (at least the CopprClay and bronze kind.)

Copper earrings

Yesterday's firing of CopprClay was successful and today's kiln firing of Art Clay copper was also successful. After tumbling, both clays look the same color. Now onto working out the firing schedule for Hadar's copper clay.

These earrings are AC copper with hammered copper wire; long and dangly.

Trying again

Silver's gone up and so has the price of metal clay. The last time I ordered it had jumped up $2. Right now I have no money (well, I have enough to pay the rent but not much else.)

So, I decided to turn to the base metal clays. I had part of a 100 gram pack of CopprClay (which was as dry and crumbly as cookie dough), part of a 100 gram pack of Bronze clay (which was hard and green), one 200 gram pack of Bronze Clay, two 50 gram packs of Art Clay copper, (the opened, but never used pack was hard as a brick and the other pack was nice.) Plus I had one vial each of Hadar's copper and white bronze clay. (It was way past time for me to use these clays.)

I also had some unfinished pieces from Debra Weld's class in August of 09. (Obviously I didn't have to worry about them not being dry.) I made some major changes to their design though since the clay was dried up. The CopprClay carved liked butter and was easy to drill through.

The first time I fired pieces from the class it went well. The second time was a partial disaster. The pieces I created in class fired fine, but the pieces I attached to them disintegrated in the tumbler. (What pretty coppery water it was though.) Today I fired more of the class pieces using a two part firing technique. I fired on an open shelf at a ramp of 500 degrees per hour to 555 degrees and held for one hour. When the pieces were cool enough to handle I put them in the stainless steel container with charcoal and fired for four hours. (The directions said 3-5 hours so I aimed for the middle.) I won't know until tomorrow morning how they turned out.

While the CopprClay was firing (which seemed like forever) , I decided to try the Art Clay Copper for the first time. Since everything with these clays is so variable, I try to keep it simple for the first few times out. The pliable clay was pretty easy to work with, except the first time it stuck to my teflon sheet. (Go figure!) It was also easy to drill but not as easy as the CopprClay.

Art Clay Copper can be torch fired, so I gave it a try. I torched from 3-5 minutes per piece. The silver clay is torched to a peachy glow and the copper clay is torched to a cherry red (which is hard to see through the safety glasses.) Immediately after torching, the piece is quenched in water to remove some of the fire scale. Then it goes into a pickle solution for about 15 minutes to remove the rest of the fire scale. Now here is where I started to get nervous. I assumed the fire scale would be black (like the picture of the copper clay in the kiln), but it wasn't. It was basically a dark red, which dropped off in the water. I didn't even have to put it in the pickle (which was a good thing...... didn't have any.) But when I went to brush the piece, a wet red color was wiping off the piece. That made me nervous since it was a reminder of the disintegrating incident earlier. They felt very hard so I popped them into the tumbler and held my breath. Two hours later they came out of the tumbler shiny and in once piece. Phew! The color isn't quite as coppery as the CopprClay though, but they're nice. And it is nice to be able to torch fire. Tomorrow I'm going to try kiln firing the Art Clay copper. It only takes 30 minutes (which is a lot better than 3-5 hours.)

The Copprclay was air dried which is what Debra wanted us to do. I dried the Art Clay copper on the candle warmer. Debra told us the base metal clays have more elasticity than the silver clay which may make more cracks appear as the clay tries to return to it's original shape. I think that is why she recommended air drying. I did notice that it was a little difficult when I tried to form a circle over the back of a paint palette. The little bugger kept wanting to pop up.

I did work with Hadar's white bronze clay once and felt the consistency of her copper clay. I may work with her clay tomorrow, but I need to use up the opened pack of Art clay before it dries out. That is the nice thing about Hadar's clay. You don't have to worry about it drying out and I know the consistency is nice and creamy not stiff like the other clays.