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Firing Pieces Of A Puppet/marionette


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Dear All,

 

A number of years ago I took a course at the Medocino Art Center. It was a sculpture course.

 

We made some large head sculptures and marionettes.

 

To be honest, I do not recall the name of the instructor. She was originally from Saskachewan, Canada. She was then a professor at an art school in California. She did life-like doll type sculptures where she used the hair from barbie dolls. I am not sure if this rings any bells for anyone out there??

 

I would like to replicate the technique we did in this class but am afraid of what metal to put, if any, in my cone art kiln.

 

When in Medocino we impregnated the clay with those simple metal loops (eye loops) you can purchase from hardware stores. These metal pieces are those that have a loop and some screwing ege on the length of the shaft. We fired these eye loops into the clay. After glaze firing they were used to suspend wire to connect the pieces of the marionette.

 

 The pieces of the marionette had terra sigilatta applied to the surface before the final glaze firing. After going through a raku fire we put them into garbage cans with colored paper.

 

Given that I plan to do a raku fire in the next month I want to repeat this process.

 

Does anyone know about whether I should purchase any special type of eye or loop screws or if they have the possibility of causing problems in my electric coneart kiln (i.e., melting and destroying a kiln shelf).

 

In speaking with Tucker's in Toronto, they had no idea about this process.

 

Has anyone fired with loop screws in an electric kiln and is there any special eye screw I should be looking for when I go to the hardware store?

 

Please know I will be using Michael Sheba's raku clay for this project. I will be doing my bisque firing with these screws in place at a regular stoneware temperature.

 

If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Sincerely,

 

Nelly

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