keskiviikko 28. lokakuuta 2009

Making FIBERCLAY...

What? Fiberclay = clay + fibers

Why? Because it´s just great! It´s flexible, easy to work with, never breaks, lightweighted yet extremely solid etc...so WHY NOT?
I made my very first batch of fibre clay about a year ago using recycled newspapers. Then I switched to other fibers because paperclay gets smelly in a few days .
This is a nice big bucket full with ready mixed fibreclay - I used my buff stoneware clay for making slip and added fibers to it. The result is pure MUD :)

One could basically use it almost like common clay slip and make nice ceramic pieces by using plaster molds. However I like to work with firm clay so first I have to remove excess water from the slip by puring the mass onto 3" thick plaster block. After 15 minutes or so I cannot wait anymore and I start to wedge it ...


















Soon I have to fight against rising clay monster dogs...but I always win!



When the clay starts to remind me of elephant "#¤% my work is almost done.

...gosh! is it real elephant "#¤% ? I´ll never touch this stuff again!

...and finally, here´s the ready mixed and wedged stoneware fibreclay. I added 30% fibres so any sculptures I´ll make of it should weight 30% less, as the fibres will burn off during the firings. As you can see it looks exactly like common clay.


These are all fibreclay critters, fired to 2280 degrees F!





That´s it for now, thanks for reading!


Cheers: Szilvia



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