Messy Work. Done

Molds for the revised parts are finished. Whew! Ready to start pouring!

Spontaneity

While the kiln was making lovely things for me...I experimented with porcelain clay. It's tricky to work with but oh so much fun!

Success!

Test fire 2 was a success! The porcelain is a lovely translucent matte white! Finally I can give them personality with paint!

Test Fire 2

Just finished casting for the second test fire. As soon as the parts are dry I will do it all again. Soft fire to 018, wet clean, dry two days, then fire to cone 5. Hopefully this will solve the problems and i will have a nice smooth, translucent doll.

China paints are on the way! Next step...adding personality with paint!

During the slip casting process I took careful notes of problem spots, parts that stuck in the mold or cracked when being removed or just needed to be refined. Everything shows in porcelain...flaws can't hide. As I worked, I marked the original sculpt with a red pencil for later corrections. All problems have been reworked and refined. Now I am ready to begin making new plaster molds. From these molds I will cast a doll I can be proud of...I hope.

Berfore and After

The loaded kiln before and after firing to cone 6. Note the witness cones. Looks like the kiln fired too hot. The last cone (7) should be upright.

My doll is so tiny and white!

Fired Porcelain!

Fired to cone 6! Not perfect yet. There was a big crack and many tiny bumps. I think the problem was firing before the greenware was bone dry. I'll do another test fire.

BTW...I have not been able to post replies to everyone's wonderful comments. A soon as I'm able to I will respond.

After

Have I mentioned how much I love working with porcelain! Porcelain compels you to slow down and take care at every step. Compels you to learn the processes involved and understand the medium. The dramatic change from liquid to a solid glass-like object is beauty! What a pleasure!

Cleaning Soft fired greenware

After cooling overnight I started wet cleaning the parts by submerging them in water and sanding away all the seams and imperfections. Be very careful when handling the sfgw because you might lose some details...like a finger. Yes I broke a finger. Thought I was careful but not careful enough. The sfgw is almost glass like at this stage and so delicate.

Loading the kiln

Ready for a soft fire to cone 018.

I'm playing with porcelain clay while the kiln does it's magic. I'm experimenting and trying to make some fun objects...we'll see how they come out.

Drying Time

All molds have been cast, holes drilled, openings are cut and smoothed. The parts are very delicate at this stage almost chalk like so I'm waiting until they are soft fired before I clean them and remove the seams. Once everything is bone dry I can soft fire to a cone 018. Soon!

Test Fire

For the test fire I added kiln wash to the shelves, loaded all the shelves and fired to cone 04. Not too hard...

Casting tiny parts.

So far so good.

A Success!

Three pours one success. The head and chest wouldn't drain properly and collapsed in the mold. I think the problem is with the drain hole being too small. I opened the holes a bit and will pour again tomorrow.

The torso came out nice!