Firing Art Clay® with a Gas Stove

6909
FNot everyone has access to a kiln. In this tutorial, learn how to fire certain types of metal clay pieces on a gas stove rather than with traditional firing methods.

: : : Materials : : :

  • Stainless steel or metal bowl
  • Stainless steel net

Firing Procedures

STEP 1
Dry completely: Before firing, your piece must be completely dry. You can dry naturally for more than a day or you can dry with a hot air dryer for at least 15 minutes. If you try to dry the piece with a hot air dryer (1200Q), have it close (not touching or not too close to blow the piece away) to the piece for complete drying.

To check if your piece has been successfully fired, draw an outline of the unfired piece on a sheet of paper. You will compare the fired piece with the outline as Regular Art Clay® Silver contracts 9-10% and Art Clay® Silver 650 contracts 8-9% after firing.
STEP 2
Draw outline of the piece: To check if the piece is completely dry, place the piece on a stainless steel, glass or plastic plate and after 10~20 seconds pick up the piece. If there is no cloud of water vapor, it is dry. It is easy to check the cloud on black or dark color, stainless steel, glass or plastic plate.
STEP 3
Prepare a bowl of water: To cool off the fired piece, prepare a bowl of water, made of stainless steel or some other metal.
STEP 4
Confirming the hottest part on a stainless steel net: Place the stainless steel net on a cooking stove. Making sure the net is placed at center of the cooking stove to be balanced. Turn on the cooking stove. Confirm that the most red-hot part of the burner is on the stainless steel net.
STEP 5
Placing the piece on the stainless net: After confirming the most red-hot part, turn off the cooking stove. Place the piece where the most red-hot part was on the net by using a pair of tweezers.
STEP 6
Firing the piece: Turn on the cooking stove again and fire the piece for five minutes. You will initially see a flame from the piece. The flame is due to the binder burning in the clay. The flame will cease after a few seconds. You will see the piece start to turn an orange color due to the temperature rising.
STEP 7
Turning off the cooking stove and cooling off: After firing for the applicable time, turn off the cooking stove and cool off the piece for at least 20 minutes. DO NOT attempt to pick up the piece right after firing as the piece may have stuck to the stainless steel net. After the piece has cooled off, it will detach from the stainless steel net easily.
STEP 8
Complete cooling: After 20 minutes, pick up the piece with a pair of tweezers and dip it into the water to complete the cooling process. Dry well with a clean towel.
STEP 9
Checking the fired piece size: Compare the fired piece to the drawing of the unfired piece; if the contraction of the fired piece is not around 10%, it is not successfully fired. You need to follow steps (4) through (8) again to complete firing.

Reminders:

  • Do not fire pieces or use the cooking stove which have supporting materials such as cork clay or paper clay.
  • You can't fire Art Clay® Gold K/22 using this process, as the oven temperature will not reach the appropriate firing temperature.
  • If you are firing Art Clay® Slow Dry type or a thick piece, make sure the piece is completely dry before firing.

Have a question regarding this project? Email Customer Service.

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