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Porcelain and Ceramic Jewelry


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Hey everyone - long time lurker, first time poster.

 

Such a wealth of knowledge on these forums that whenever I google any ceramic/glaze questions I have always been directed here. I look forward to learning and sharing ideas with all of you.

 

I am part of a team that creates porcelain art jewelry. We work with Cone 6 Porcelain combined with several types of glazing and over glaze techniques and have been having some good success in the last few years.

 

So here are my questions:

 

1. Has anyone made a solid porcelain or ceramic bangle with success? I know they exist because I have seen them online

 

I guess I should also be more clear that I can make the actual bangle, but I cannot figure out a way to glaze the entire piece. Pin supports would leave marks in the glaze and possibly scratch clothing. I can string it along some nichrome wire, but I would still have to leave a portion unglazed for the wire to rest on.

 

Really stuck on this one...

 

2. Is there a way to fire CZ's, gemstones into porcelain. I like the idea of melted gemstones (if that happens to them).

 

Thanks!

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I had an acquaintance who tried porcelain bangles but they were a hard sell because women worried about chipping and breaking them. She had a bit better luck with rings, and much better luck with earings. To glaze the whole thing you suspend it on the wires and lightly sand rough spots after firing.

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thanks chris,

 

we have a devoted following that believe "You are wearing a piece of Art, treat it as such." Most of our clients know what they are getting into when wearing porcelain jewelry and wear them well. That being said - I've seen so many porcelain bangles around lately that they must be stronger than ppl think they are.

 

though we do have breakages from time to time, most of our pieces are pretty tough and have landed on concrete, tile floors and gone through washers and dryers with no issues. We use a cone 6 porcelain that we fire to cone 7... it gets super tough that way.

 

I had an acquaintance who tried porcelain bangles but they were a hard sell because women worried about chipping and breaking them. She had a bit better luck with rings, and much better luck with earings. To glaze the whole thing you suspend it on the wires and lightly sand rough spots after firing.

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I've been thinking about this too. The only way I envisioned it is to use stilts with bangle laid on side and keep the stilt points sharpened so it leaves very minimum stilt marks as I'm able to grind some stilt marks with a very fine dremmel bit and sort of buff out the very light rough mark with polishing compound and a small buffing wheel also for the dremmel.

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http://www.newtownfineart.com.au/Tree_Robin.html

 

look at the bangles on this site.. they really are nice and look like they've been glazed all over...

 

they are too thin to use stilts on.. im thinking they maybe keep one edge of it unglazed and fire it on that side?

I've been thinking about this too. The only way I envisioned it is to use stilts with bangle laid on side and keep the stilt points sharpened so it leaves very minimum stilt marks as I'm able to grind some stilt marks with a very fine dremmel bit and sort of buff out the very light rough mark with polishing compound and a small buffing wheel also for the dremmel.

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I thought of something quite similar and have already made the molds... I think I will leave 3 spots unglazed on one side and cast another piece to rest the bangle on it.

 

 

Hi there,

 

I looks to me like these were fired on a tree type stand that has right angle prongs coming out of it, so that only a small point on the inside of the bangle is affected. T

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I was following this till the Robin tree link was all outsourced to china-

 

I'll set that aside and agree that it can be done with few wire points ground down and smoothed over.Those marks can be on the inside or an edge or on the outside.

Mark

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Rethinking this made me remember all my (not so great) experiences with porcelain ;)

 

I think with porcelain I would leave a whole margin unglazed and rest it on a normal shelf- I think it wouldn`t be ok if the bangle rested just on three points, it might lower in unsupported parts.

what do you think?

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Inya, I think that the bangle will shrink so much in the glaze firing, that it might fall off the supports. I would rather go for a very thin layer of glaze, rubbed off on both sides of the bangle, so that it looks like it has to be like that. or, just leave it unglazed. Sand with wet paper after a bisque firing and again after the 'glaze' firing. and add transfers.

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post-6239-13375262897_thumb.jpgpost-6239-133752627871_thumb.jpgHi all,

I havnt posted here since last year, but am still an avid reader of this great forum.

I make a range of jewellery and had to do lots of testing to get results that I'm happy with.

The coloured texture stamps bracelets are glazed all over and final fired on 3 pronged sitters.

The coloured porcelain is very much trickier. If I glazed all over and hung from a wire support, they stretched out of round.

So I now wet polish the interior, so they feel great against the skin- some I also polish the outside and leave unglazed.

But others I clear glaze on the exterior and fire them laying on the rim with some calcined alumina on the shelf.

The rings took me a long time to get a solution. The ones in this image are glazed all over and are sitting in little clay mounts I made for them and re-use.

You can see I use calcined alumina here to, and because its such a small surface a light wet polish after firing smooths this surface well.

Hope the images helppost-6239-133752627078_thumb.jpg

post-6239-133752627078_thumb.jpg

post-6239-133752627871_thumb.jpg

post-6239-13375262897_thumb.jpg

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With porcelain, has anyone tried a high fire bisque, than lower fire glaze. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about shrinkage, and have more support options for the glaze fire.

 

I don't know about glaze fit though.

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hey matt,

 

i depends on the finished we are going for. requires a bit of forethought and planning.

 

since it's jewelry, we don't worry so much with glaze fit because no one is eating off of it - lol.

 

We sometimes do a low fire bisque and then use high fire glazes on them (if that's the look we want)

 

And sometimes we do a high fire bisque with the high fire glaze and the piece is ready of overglaze work.

 

Sometimes we do a high fire bisque and then apply low fire glazes. I find clear (gloss and matte/satin) non crackle glazes get crackle textures which i bring out with ink sometimes. some other glazes (ex amaco's luster glazes) never have any problems with cracks.

 

But I have rarely had problems with shrinkage, warping during the firing process

 

With porcelain, has anyone tried a high fire bisque, than lower fire glaze. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about shrinkage, and have more support options for the glaze fire.

 

I don't know about glaze fit though.

 

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beautiful work lynny!

 

I have thought about leaving the inside unglazed - i am not very experienced with wet sanding. I did it once and it was so time consuming and i felt like i couldnt breath properly for a few days after (I had all the precautions - gloves, eye glasses, respirator).

 

And my time in doing this would certainly drive up the price.

 

Does wet sanding actually give it a good seal and make it non porous? Meaning, I don't want customers complaining later on that the inside of the cuff got stained from dirt/makeup etc.

 

aw dammit.. i'm just gonna use acrylics... hahaha *JOKE*

 

post-6239-13375262897_thumb.jpgpost-6239-133752627871_thumb.jpgHi all,

I havnt posted here since last year, but am still an avid reader of this great forum.

I make a range of jewellery and had to do lots of testing to get results that I'm happy with.

The coloured texture stamps bracelets are glazed all over and final fired on 3 pronged sitters.

The coloured porcelain is very much trickier. If I glazed all over and hung from a wire support, they stretched out of round.

So I now wet polish the interior, so they feel great against the skin- some I also polish the outside and leave unglazed.

But others I clear glaze on the exterior and fire them laying on the rim with some calcined alumina on the shelf.

The rings took me a long time to get a solution. The ones in this image are glazed all over and are sitting in little clay mounts I made for them and re-use.

You can see I use calcined alumina here to, and because its such a small surface a light wet polish after firing smooths this surface well.

Hope the images helppost-6239-133752627078_thumb.jpg

 

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Hi Fued

I should of mentioned the texture stamped ones that I fire on prongs are earthenware- oops

But the porcelain, that I wet sand have never had complaints re staining etc you mentioned. The clay is vitrified and easily washed in soapy water if needed.

I put finished bracelets and rings in a bucket of water and use fine grade wet/dry sand paper that is used in the auto motive industry.

Then actually sand them under water- this guarantees no scratches and there is no dust at all. It is time consuming if there are a lot to do.

But if I was to cost out what it takes to do each one its minimal and wouldnt affect sell price that much. Its sort of a brainless job that can be done in front of the tv.

good luck, they are very popular at the moment.

Lyn

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Hey everyone - long time lurker, first time poster.

 

Such a wealth of knowledge on these forums that whenever I google any ceramic/glaze questions I have always been directed here. I look forward to learning and sharing ideas with all of you.

 

I am part of a team that creates porcelain art jewelry. We work with Cone 6 Porcelain combined with several types of glazing and over glaze techniques and have been having some good success in the last few years.

 

So here are my questions:

 

1. Has anyone made a solid porcelain or ceramic bangle with success? I know they exist because I have seen them online

 

I guess I should also be more clear that I can make the actual bangle, but I cannot figure out a way to glaze the entire piece. Pin supports would leave marks in the glaze and possibly scratch clothing. I can string it along some nichrome wire, but I would still have to leave a portion unglazed for the wire to rest on.

 

Really stuck on this one...

 

2. Is there a way to fire CZ's, gemstones into porcelain. I like the idea of melted gemstones (if that happens to them).

 

Thanks!

 

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I know that you probably want to glaze them, but if you can find a style that you like to make that doesn't require glazing, the bangles will be less llikely to break. As with wind chimes banging together, it's the glaze that helps them break. I took a jewlery workshop with Luca Tripaldi from Italy. He uses ^10 procelain and colors the clay (also some transfers). After firing he uses various grades of wet sand paper to finish them to s smooth surface. This would work at ^6 too. I haven't seen any bangles of his but I'm sure the rings get banged a bit.

 

 

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hey matt,

 

i depends on the finished we are going for. requires a bit of forethought and planning.

 

since it's jewelry, we don't worry so much with glaze fit because no one is eating off of it - lol.

 

We sometimes do a low fire bisque and then use high fire glazes on them (if that's the look we want)

 

And sometimes we do a high fire bisque with the high fire glaze and the piece is ready of overglaze work.

 

Sometimes we do a high fire bisque and then apply low fire glazes. I find clear (gloss and matte/satin) non crackle glazes get crackle textures which i bring out with ink sometimes. some other glazes (ex amaco's luster glazes) never have any problems with cracks.

 

But I have rarely had problems with shrinkage, warping during the firing process

 

With porcelain, has anyone tried a high fire bisque, than lower fire glaze. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about shrinkage, and have more support options for the glaze fire.

 

I don't know about glaze fit though.

 

 

 

I see you have already made pieces every which way.

 

Thanks for the info.

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Hey everyone - long time lurker, first time poster.

 

Such a wealth of knowledge on these forums that whenever I google any ceramic/glaze questions I have always been directed here. I look forward to learning and sharing ideas with all of you.

 

I am part of a team that creates porcelain art jewelry. We work with Cone 6 Porcelain combined with several types of glazing and over glaze techniques and have been having some good success in the last few years.

 

So here are my questions:

 

1. Has anyone made a solid porcelain or ceramic bangle with success? I know they exist because I have seen them online

 

I guess I should also be more clear that I can make the actual bangle, but I cannot figure out a way to glaze the entire piece. Pin supports would leave marks in the glaze and possibly scratch clothing. I can string it along some nichrome wire, but I would still have to leave a portion unglazed for the wire to rest on.

 

Really stuck on this one...

 

2. Is there a way to fire CZ's, gemstones into porcelain. I like the idea of melted gemstones (if that happens to them).

 

Thanks!

 

 

actually people make all kind of accessories from ceramic or bisque in Turkey something same as my photo as below

 

 

 

post-13078-133784229557_thumb.jpg

post-13078-133784229557_thumb.jpg

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