Art Materials are Expensive, Yo!

 So in keeping with the making of plates for the series that I'm planning! 

The week ended with 6 plates drying last week, and drying this week all under a flannel backed tablecloth.  On Monday, a little clean-up happened on them and set them back to slowly dry (in case that was the reason of the cracking from the last two pieces).  

On Friday, impatience got the better of me, and all 6 went into the kiln! One was probably a little damper than I would ordinarily put it in, but again, impatience! While these pieces were going into the kiln, a thought hit me, and so I grabbed the two cracked plates and added a Clay Mender product by Mayco.  


 I've used this product before, though I prefer making my own paper clay for mending pieces - I've found that paper clay works better for fixing things in the Greenware state.  Paper clay discussion is for another time! :-) 

Mayco makes this product, and Amaco makes Bisque Fix - which is a great product BUT it is markedly more expensive like $25 vs Mayco's $5.  The other downside is that it dries out incredibly quickly and becomes unusable.  Where as Mayco's product doesn't dry out that quickly and is less expensive.  Both can be used on Greenware or Bisque pieces which is a benefit as well. 

My thought on attempting to fill the cracks and refire - was what was the worst that was going to happen? The cracks get bigger? At least I will now know if this has the potential to work or not! 

Needless to say, the cracks in the plates were packed with Clay Mender - then popped back into the kiln for a looooong and slooooow firing over the weekend.  So we will see on Monday how things look! 



Two cracks filled with Clay Mender
Two plates with Clay Mender
& Two Greenware Plates
The other 4 plates are on the level below! 








For those of you wondering - 

• Clay is currently running approximately $1-$2 (porcelain)  a pound with shipping.  Mind you, I'm not purchasing in any major volume at this point.  

• Clay typically comes in 50lb boxes - with 2 blocks of 25lbs of clay.   

• Each plate is a little less than s 3lbs of wet clay.  

• Out of one 25lb block of clay, I was able to get these 8 plates.  I have chunk of clay left to make one more plate.  

• Once clay is fired it can no longer be recycled and used again to make a different piece, so if it cracks, that's the end of the piece. 

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