What’s an affordable way to fire Precious Metal Clay?
I can’t afford a full size kiln. The company that sells the clay also sells a very small kiln that can fire pieces the size of a fifty cent piece, but I want to make things that are larger. I thought about renting space at a pottery shop or the community college, but the company website recommends against pottery kilns because of temp flucuations cause by air movement. And I’m not comfortable with torch firing. Does anyone else have any ideas?
Back when I did lost wax casting one method that people used for firing the investment and vaporizing the wax to cast melted silver and gold was to make a kiln out of a plain, unglazed terra cotta firepot which was turned upside down on top of an electric hot plate. I’ve seen this done but never built one myself, and it worked great. You can also nest two or three pots together to make the kiln stronger and retain heat better.
Another technique is building small kilns using refractory fire bricks and an electric heating element or a gas burner. If you check eBay or look around online you can find fire bricks and plans to build kilns. They are also called “firebricks,” (one word).
As far as torch firing goes… I know that handling a torch can be intimidating if you have no experience with one, but I’ve seen men and women, both young and old learn to use one quickly and easily. Try to find someone with experience to guide you through the process, or look online for instructions to safely teach yourself.
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VERNON KILNS COLUMBIA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE DINNER PLATE NICE $21.21 |
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Vernon Kilns of California Christian College of Columbia Missouri Centennial plt $19.99 |
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The Connecticut charcoal kiln (Bulletin / Extension Service, College of Agriculture, University of Connecticut) … |
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