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Firing A Sculpture With Aluminum Alloy Armature Wire Inside?


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Hello all! I believe I've already post about this one project I've done, but now I have a whole new question about it. While I was sculpting these hands, I slipped some aluminum alloy armature wire inside the fingers and never took it out. I was hoping to fire and glaze them, but I'm worried that it will explode because of the armature. Should I bother to fire it (someone wants to buy them) or should I just spray paint it and call it a day?

 

Clay: White Stone Mountain Clay (water), 8" long, widest part is 1 1/2"

 

I was told by the man that sold me the wire I could fire the armature, but I'm having doubts. 

The fingers did crack a little where the wire may be, but the product's website said "The wire will not corrode or stain, and has a melting point of 1220 degrees F/660 degrees C."

 

Thank you so much!!

Savannah

 

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A bisque is over those temps for it to melt.

 

Would it melt everywhere and break the sculpture or come out in a controlled way or is is sealed into the sculpture. Hard to know what would happen. Is it completely solid? Nice looking hands you have there.

 

Thank you!! Yes, it's completely solid - I need it to stay in one piece  :( so it's useless to try to fire at a temp. lower than the melting point?

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If you don't fire it, it will be much too fragile to sell. The odds of it breaking are much too high. Unfired clay has zero durability, even if you paint it.

 

If you fire the piece, it could be a total disaster, as that aluminum will melt. I think that by the time it gets up to bisque temps the wire will be gassing out and will blow the piece apart, much like steam explosions. I could be wrong, though, and there's no way to know for sure without doing it. It's worthless if you don't fire it, so you might as well give it a try. I would put the hands inside another form or under a bowl or something so as to keep it from getting all over the kiln if it does explode, and to contain the melted metal if it oozes out somehow. You stand the risk of ruining a kiln shelf. If it's not your kiln, get approval form the owner. The hands look to be a bit thick, so you're going to want to fire really slowly or else you'll blow them up. You could fire as low as 1500F and still get some level of durability.

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If you don't fire it, it will be much too fragile to sell. The odds of it breaking are much too high. Unfired clay has zero durability, even if you paint it.

 

If you fire the piece, it could be a total disaster, as that aluminum will melt. I think that by the time it gets up to bisque temps the wire will be gassing out and will blow the piece apart, much like steam explosions. I could be wrong, though, and there's no way to know for sure without doing it. It's worthless if you don't fire it, so you might as well give it a try. I would put the hands inside another form or under a bowl or something so as to keep it from getting all over the kiln if it does explode, and to contain the melted metal if it oozes out somehow. You stand the risk of ruining a kiln shelf. If it's not your kiln, get approval form the owner. The hands look to be a bit thick, so you're going to want to fire really slowly or else you'll blow them up. You could fire as low as 1500F and still get some level of durability.

 

True.. I don't want to sell anything that's going to fall apart. Is 1500F the lowest I can go? And it'll be my kiln, so no one else's stuff is going to get ruined.

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What about removing the armature? Slowly remoisten the clay, to about leatherhard. Cut the sculpture in half, remove the armature, and score and slip back together. You could hallow the piece a bit more, to solve the drying issue.

 

Not sure if this solution will work, in this case, just a thought.

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if the wire is all connected together and is sticking out so that it is exposed to the atmosphere, you might be able to just melt it out and let it oxidixe without blowing anything apart.

Put a good layer of kiln wash on your shelves and bring it slowly up to around 1300F. This is above the melting point but below the boiling point. So all that should be happening is oxidation to the oxide , which is inert.

hold it ther for a couple of hours. Thin sheets or wires of aluminum oxidize quickly. That should melt/oxidize out the aluminum and give the clay enough strength to re- fire it after the aluminum has oxidized out.

 

It's worth a try.... any other way you will probably lose the sculpter.

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Instead of risking the kiln, and everyone else's ( and your other ) work by firing these, you should probably  put these on a shelf and do them again.  On the up side,  if you've done it once, it is something that you can do again. Additionally  it will likely be better the second or third time you do it anyway.  I often see people spend so much time trying to "save" work that is problematic, sometimes spending more time trying to save a piece than it would take to do it over.  This sounds like it may be one of those situations. As an artist you cant be timid about chucking out work that isn't making the cut, as long as you learn from it, its not a waste, its just a step to the work that does make the cut, that is something to be proud of.  Don't waste time, just learn from it and do it again.  Practice makes perfect.... or closer to perfect anyway.  

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